quote:

The Australian government Monday rejected Aboriginal demands for hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for the "stolen generation" of indigenous children taken from their parents.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has pledged to apologise to Aborigines for the widely-criticised policy, something his predecessor John Howard refused to do during his 11 years in power before being ousted in November elections.

But Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin Monday ruled out backing the apology with the establishment of a compensation fund of a billion dollars (870 million US), as demanded by some Aboriginal leaders.

"What we will be doing is putting the funding into health and education services, and providing additional support for services needed for counselling, to enable people to find their relatives," she told national radio.

"So we won't be creating a compensation fund."