The Hague/Berlin - The International Court of Justice in The Hague is set to examine a suit filed by Germany seeking to halt the Italian judiciary's ruling that Berlin pay compensation for victims of Nazi World War II crimes committed against Italians.

Germany filed its complaint earlier in the week to the International Court of Justice, the United Nations' highest judicial body, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Germany's decision to file the law suit stems from an October ruling by Italy's top criminal court, the Court of Cassation, awarding damages of 1 million euros (1.4 million dollars) to nine relatives of victims of a June 1944 massacre in the Tuscan town of Civitella.

In the atrocity, German soldiers killed more than 200 civilians to avenge a deadly attack by partisans.

In its filing with the court, Germany argued that as a sovereign state it has immunity in Italian courts, and that any decision rendered in the Italian judiciary is unenforceable.

The complaint is unusual in that it sees one European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization member suing another.

It remains unclear if or when the court will rule on the case, with legal sources saying Saturday that the international body's jurisdiction over the case still needs to be determined.

German authorities have expressed concern that if the Italian ruling is allowed to stand, it may open a Pandora's box with "hundreds" of similar individual cases seeking compensation from Berlin likely to be filed around Europe.

The German government has stated that seeking compensation for World War II crimes was "morally understandable but it is, in judicial terms, the wrong way to address this injustice, and so this ruling is not acceptable for us."

Germany says financial compensation claims were closed under a 1961 treaty between Germany and Italy under which the German government paid millions dollars in compensation. (dpa)