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Participants called the agreement an "historic breakthrough."

The commission, which will be composed of all the signatories, will have investigatory powers and will set up a mechanism to resolve conflicts between claimants and insurers.

The agreement also calls for establishing a fund to underwrite the commission's work and to provide humanitarian relief to families of Holocaust victims.

In a series of hearings by state insurance regulators earlier this year, numerous witnesses charged that European insurance companies have been stalling for 50 years to avoid payment on policies taken out by Jews in the 1930s.

The insurance companies participating in the new commission are: Allianz Holding of Germany, Assicurazioni Generali of Italy, AXA Group of France and Zurich Insurance of Switzerland.

Jewish groups that signed the agreement included the World Jewish Restitution Organization, the World Jewish Congress and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

California Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, chairman of a national committee involved in the recovery of Holocaust insurance moneys, praised the establishment of the new commission.

"I am truly encouraged that we have been able to begin a process that will unite U.S. and European insurance regulators and insurance companies to meet the common goal of assuring swift resolution of this issue and payments to claimants," he said in a statement.