His Ethiopian counterpart, Meles Zenawi, the prime minister, has meanwhile written to the leaders of 15 countries, accusing Eritrea of holding 30, 000 Ethiopian citizens in 15 slave-labour camps in different parts of the country.

ECONOMIST: Eritrea

The southern states, virtually devoid of non-slave labour, relied on the people flocking to the mills of Lancashire to turn their fleecy raw material into finished cloth.

ECONOMIST: Cotton

He also served at slave labour sites in Nazi-occupied France where prisoners built launching platforms for Germany's V-1 and V-2 rockets, the justice department said.

BBC: US deports SS 'murder pits guard'

Austrian firms that are part of the state-holding company OeIAG have been asked to contribute a voluntary 0.2% of their annual sales to a six billion schilling fund to compensate an estimated 150, 000 surviving victims - whether they used slave labour or not.

BBC: Austrian firms agree Holocaust deal