1.   The battles among groups representing former forced laborers have been almost as intense as the bargaining with German leaders.

2.   The settlement is designed to protect German companies, particularly those tied to American companies, from numerous class action law suits filed by former laborers.

3.   A major recent exception is Volkswagen, which announced this month it would set up a private fund to handle claims of former VW slave laborers.

4.   But Steiner said that tracing former forced laborers was proving difficult for the Hungarian and Austrian researchers involved in the project.

5.   But Steiner said that tracing former forced laborers was proving difficult.

6.   Earlier, parliament President Wolfgang Thierse told a delegation of American rabbis that he would look for a way to legally start paying compensation to the former laborers.

7.   However, Masatoshi Uchida, a Japanese lawyer who is familiar with post-World War II compensation issues, said the ruling could benefit other lawsuits by former forced laborers.

8.   In a sign of progress, negotiators working out payments to former World War II slave laborers talked about actual money amounts for the first time this week.

9.   Insurance money, of a meager amount, has also been paid to South Koreans who were former conscript laborers in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

10.   It said fund administrators would announce shortly where former forced laborers can apply.