After two days of talks by diplomats from 11 countries, who met in Luxembourg, an announcement has been made that the world's largest archive of Nazi German documents will be opened to historians for the first time.

It has taken several years of negotiations to reach this agreement, and the talks also went on later than expected as diplomats discussed the details of the deal.

It means historians will for the first time gain access to the files, which contain personal details on more than 17 million people who went through the concentration camp and slave labour system.

For six decades, the archive - housed in a storeroom in the sleepy Baroque town of Bad Arolsen, in central Germany - has been used exclusively by a Red Cross agency that helps people trace loved ones who went missing during World War II.