THE Simon Wiesenthal Centre has identified dozens of former members of Nazi mobile death squads who might still be alive and is pushing the German government for an investigation.

The centre's top Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, said he sent the German justice and interior ministries a list last month of 76 men and four women who served in the so-called Einsatzgruppen.

Mr Zuroff narrowed down the list of possible suspects by choosing the youngest from a list of 1,100 known to his organisation from an estimated 3,000 members of the death squads.

All 80 would be very old if still alive, with dates of birth between 1920 and 1924.

Mr Zuroff said: "Time is running out, something has to be done."

Germany's Interior Ministry had no immediate comment but the Justice Ministry said it had passed the details of the letter to the special federal prosecutors' office investigating Nazi-era crimes.

The Einsatzgruppen followed Nazi troops as they battled their way eastwards.