Polish and German leaders announced Thursday the dispute over World War II compensation claims between the two countries has been over.

Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said their position was supported by a legal analysis drafted by both Polish and German experts for their regularly scheduled annual meeting in Krakow.

According to the draft, which will be published soon, neither the property claims by Germans expelled from Poland after World War Two nor the Polish demands for reparations from Germany had legal basis.

Earlier this year a group of Germans who lost property from former German territories ceded to Poland after World War Two demanded the Polish government return their expropriated property. They had filed compensation claims to the courts in Germany and the European Court.

In retaliation, the Polish parliament passed a resolution in September calling on its government to submit reparation claims to Germany for losses suffered during the war.

Both governments then set up the mixed commission to examine the legal position.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2004)