The famously secretive Swiss banks have made some of their clients' records public, in the hopes of reuniting victims of the Nazis with their unclaimed funds.

The list was published online Thursday, under the terms of a settlement reached last June. That agreement, in turn, brought an end to an argument that's been raging since early 1999.

That was when, in a New York district court, the banks agreed to a $1.25 billion US settlement of a suit brought by Nazi victims who claimed their holdings had been stolen, concealed or given away in the years between 1933 and 1945. The banks were accused of destroying records so as to not leave a paper trail.

"In addition, the newly-published names include accounts identified by Switzerland in 1962 as potentially owned by Holocaust victims that have been published earlier, but that have not yet been claimed," the U.S. District Court said in a statement Thursday.

The list released by the Credit Suisse and UBS AG banks contains approximately 3,100 Nazi-era account records that can now be cross-referenced with a list of thousands hoping to recover lost family assets.

In 1999, an audit conducted by Paul Volcker determined that 2,400 of the newly-released names "probably or possibly" belonged to Holocaust victims.

Account owners or their heirs have until July 13, 2005 to file a claim with the court-established Claims Resolution Tribunal.

According to the court-appointed lead Settlement Counsel, New York University Law Professor Burt Neuborne, $219 million US has already been paid to Holocaust victims who lost bank accounts.

Another $10 million is going to more than 4,000 Jewish and Roma refugees who were barred from Switzerland or mistreated there during the Second World War.

"All told, the Swiss bank settlement has now touched the lives of more than 300,000 Holocaust survivors and victims' heirs. We will not rest until every claim has been carefully investigated," Neuborne said in a statement.

An earlier list of 21,000 account records published back in Feb. 2001, led to 2,800 people finding lost accounts.