Eleven nations controlling a long-secret archive of Nazi documents will hold an unscheduled meeting to assess how quickly the files can be opened to researchers, officials said Wednesday.

The informal meeting, to be held in The Hague in early March, will set the stage for the annual session two months later of the International Commission, the decision-making body that supervises the massive storehouse of concentration camp records and other Nazi material in the German town of Bad Arolsen.

The preparatory meeting was unusual, and reflected impatience among some delegations at the prospect of a lengthy legal process before the files become accessible.

A Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman said it was called in response to requests by several delegations to follow up on the groundbreaking decision last May to make material available for the first time for Holocaust research.

That decision must be ratified by all 11 countries before access is granted _ unless the 11 delegations unanimously agree to circumvent formal procedures, according to the Dutch delegation which holds the rotating chairmanship.

The archives, set up by the Allies after World War II, have been sheltered from public scrutiny for 60 years, except for use by the Red Cross to trace missing people after the war, and later to validate victims’ compensation claims. The records contain 17.5 million names.

Dutch spokesman Gijs Gerlag said delegates had asked to review the ratification process and to discuss when and how material will become accessible.

“There is no formal agenda. Anyone can raise any issue he wants to discuss,” he said.

U.S. delegate Paul Shapiro, speaking from Washington, said the meeting would examine “alternative paths” to open the archives while the ratification process continues.

“The path chosen is the one with the prospect for the most delay,” he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has run the tracing service since 1955, under an agreement among the 11 countries _ Germany, the United States, Israel, the Netherlands, Belgium, Britain, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland and Italy.

So far, only Israel and the United States have formally adopted the agreement to open the archive. Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland have indicated their parliaments could ratify the treaty before the next annual meeting in May.

Several members of the U.S. Congress have called on the other governments to endorse the agreement as soon as possible.

STN