Insurers Agree on Holocaust Claims Several large European insurance companies agreed for the first time to pay claims on prewar policies of Holocaust victims.

Roosevelt attacked the British prewar policy of "appeasement," calling it ineffective.

Several large European insurance companies agreed for the first time today to pay claims on prewar policies of Holocaust victims, under a formula that reflects present-day values.

PAGE C1 A Holocaust Settlement Several European insurance companies agreed to pay claims on prewar policies of Holocaust victims, under a formula that reflects present-day values, potentially totaling billions of dollars.

Mr. Gonzalez, having led the criticism of the Bush Administration's prewar policies toward Iraq, has become better known.

President Bush made a bristling defense of his prewar policy toward Iraq today, saying the White House had no evidence in 1989 that President Saddam Hussein was misusing federally guaranteed bank loans to buy nuclear-arms technology illegally.

At the same time, however strong the desire to cut defence costs and to give priority to home affairs, too much had happened since the mid-1930s for the United States to return to its prewar foreign and defence policies.

More than a half-century after the Holocaust, a group of European insurance companies has reached an agreement to pay claims on prewar policies under a formula that reflects present-day values.

Just Wednesday, for example, Mr. Bush angrily defended his prewar policy toward Iraq on a network television appearance from the Rose Garden, asserting that the United States did not enhance Iraq's "nuclear, biological or chemical capability."

Any follow-on actions, such as diplomacy on Arab-Israeli questions, would be consistent with our prewar policies and in the interests of lasting security.