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By: Asbestos Settlement

James Hardie executives apologized Friday to victims of asbestos poisoning and promised "fair and equable compensation" to those injured by its products as protesters gathered outside the embattled company's annual shareholders' meeting.

Around 60 protesters demonstrated outside the meeting, many of them from Dutch labor unions, and some from Australia and Scotland. Several who had purchased shares spoke angrily at the meeting.

The company's promise to set up a payment scheme for victims "is exactly that, a scheme to give up responsibility to asbestos victims," Ella Sweeny told directors, representing victims "internationally and in Australia."

James Hardie has its roots in Australia but now has most of its sales in the United States. It relocated its headquarters to the Netherlands in 2001 - a move that victims' groups say was aimed at cutting its exposure to asbestos claims in Australia.

But chairwoman Meredith Hellicar said the company had moved to the Netherlands in order to pay less in taxes, "not by desire to run away from asbestos liabilities."

She said the move "did absolutely nothing to change the legal liability of James Hardie to claimants, nor claimant's ability to pursue those claims."

Hellicar promised "to put to shareholders a proposal that ensures the compensation to which these people are entitled continues to be provided in a manner that is speedy, fair and equitable."

She added that the company will "voluntarily submit" to the ruling of an Australian government inquiry whose result is expected in several days.

"No one should be in doubt about James Hardie's preparedness to work with all applicable authorities," she said.

Before the company's move to the Netherlands, James Hardie set up a foundation with A$293 million (euro165.3 million, US$201.6 million) to cover future asbestos claims. But analysts expect the foundation will run out of money in three years, leaving a shortfall of more than A$1 billion (US$701 million, euro573 million) to cover future claims.

Joan Baird, 67, traveled from Clydebank, Scotland, to protest at the meeting, saying she'd "go to the end of this earth" to make sure the company pays all its claims after her husband died from asbestos poisoning.

"These people know the facts," she said. "It's just plain murder."

The shareholder's meeting was intended to approve the company's Dutch accounts, but the company decided to delay approving the accounts until the government report, because liabilities are likely to rise dramatically.

More than 600 people died from asbestos-related diseases in Australia last year, according to protesters. In the next 20 years, an estimated 53,000 people will develop an asbestos-related disease, of whom 15,000 will die, they say.

Hellicar estimated that around 20 percent of Australian victims are due to James Hardie products, and said the company recognized its "moral responsibility" to victims.