PRAGUE (AFP)---Forty-six nations signed a declaration Monday to press for the restitution of Jewish assets stolen by the Nazis during World War II and provide social help for impoverished Holocaust survivors.
The non-legally binding text, adopted at an international conference in Prague, noted that "only a part" of the estimated 17 billion dollars worth of assets taken from Jews has been recovered or compensated.
"The participating states urge that every effort be made to rectify theconsequences of wrongful property seizures, such as confiscations, forced sales and sales under duress of property, which were part of the persecution of these innocent people and groups, the vast majority of whom died heirless," it says.
The Terezin declaration -- named after a wartime Jewish Ghetto in northern Prague -- also calls for some of the recovered property from Jews who did not have heirs to be used to help needy Holocaust survivors.
"It is unacceptable that those who suffered so greatly during the earlier part of their lives should live under impoverished circumstances at the end," the declaration states.
The head of the US delegation, Stuart Eizenstat, praised the declaration's scope and its inclusion of social help for needy Holocaust survivors.
"We have the most far reaching and comprehensive declaration dealing with the assets of the Holocaust," Eizenstat told reporters.
"It covers every single area, including many that had never been covered before," including social needs and the restitution of private property, he said.
While the declaration is not legally binding, "it creates an important moral obligation," Eizenstat said.
The signatories also pledged to widen the access to archives in order to make it easier to identify seized property.
Around 100,000 of the 600,000 paintings stolen by the Nazis are still missing, according to figures released at the conference.
The five-day conference, which ends Tuesday, will be the last event held under the Czech Republic's six-month EU presidency.
The European Union agreed at the conference to create the European Shoah Legacy Institute, which will help facilitate the restitution process.
The Terezin declaration is a follow-up to a text adopted in Washington in 1998 that was signed by 44 countries, which agreed to put in place a process for restitutions, compensations and reparations for Holocaust victims.
"A lot remains to be done," said Francois Zimeray, head of the French delegation.
"We cannot allow the results we obtained to get to our heads," he said.
"Sometimes there is a lack of real political will that goes beyond the agreed speeches."
Poland, which after Germany is the European country most concerned by the Nazi thefts, pledged during the conference to pass a law aimed at returning Jewish property, Eizenstat said.
"Poland made a very specific renewed commitment... that there will be a Polish private property law introduced that will cover not only the Communist period but the Holocaust as well," the US delegate said.
Russia also decided to join the Terezin declaration but insisted that it would stick to postwar treaties limiting the scope of possible restitution.
"We fully support the Terezin declaration, but we regret an attempt to turn a blind eye on the results of the Second World War," he said.
"Everything should be based on the international principles that were adopted after the war," he said, including "peace treaties."