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BRASILIA — A state panel will trace gold and other assets stolen from Holocaust victims and believed to have been smuggled into the country by Nazis after World War II.

Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed a decree creating the commission, which will also attempt to determine whether any former Nazis, many of whom found a safe haven in South America after the war, are still living in Brazil.

According to the World Jewish Congress, which has spearheaded an international effort at returning looted properties to their rightful Jewish owners, some 1,500 Nazi war criminals may have entered Brazil after the war.

The commission is to determine how much gold confiscated from Jews by the Nazis was smuggled into Brazil and what was done with it. The panel is to work with the WJC to make restitution of whatever funds are found.

Cardoso said the creation of the commission embodied a repudiation of all kinds of violence, "especially the barbaric violence that was practiced by the Nazis."

The commission, whose seven members' names are to be announced by the president in 30 days, will have one year to present its findings. It will have the right to request documents and information from all public and private institutions and will have access to confidential government archives.

The commission will first try to verify whether the Bank of Brazil, the country's central bank, is holding any assets deposited by former Nazis.

Rabbi Henry Sobel, who represents Brazil's 130,000-member Jewish community, has been pressing the Brazilian government to open up banking records and archives as part of a probe into the country's wartime past.