Lithuania's parliament has approved $53 million in compensation to Jews and their families for property stolen by the invading Nazis in World War Two.

The money will be paid out over 10 years starting in 2013. Organizations representing the country's Jewish community will administer the fund.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says the United States welcomes what she calls an important step towards justice and reconciliation. She says the Lithuanian people are making a number of actions to address a difficult past.

The government is already promoting Holocaust education and is preserving an ancient Jewish cemetery in Vilnius.

The Nazis and their collaborators murdered 95 percent of Lithuania's pre-war Jewish population.