Seven major insurance companies have agreed to pay 2 billion dollars to settle a long-running dispute over insurance claims for New York's destroyed World Trade Center, reports said Thursday.

The group consisted of Allianz Global Risk, the Travelers Companies, Zurich American, Swiss Re, Employers' Insurance, Industrial Risk Insurers and Royal Indemnity, The New York Times reported.

The settlement brings to 4.5 billion dollars the amount awarded to Larry Silverstein, who leased the World Trade Center site just six weeks prior to the Twin Towers' destruction, in insurance settlements, and provides a green light for the 9-billion-dollar redevelopment of the site to proceed.

The settlement was the largest in industry history, said Andreas Shell, claims crisis coordinator for Allianz, adding that his company was "extremely happy with the result."

"The unsettled insurance claims were the last major barrier to rebuilding and have been bitterly and intensely contested for almost six years," said New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who in recent weeks had taken part in talks aimed at ending the dispute. “This means we can now fund construction, access the financial markets and move on to what should be our primary focus: rebuilding," Spitzer told the New York Times.

At the time of the 9/11 terrorists attacks some two dozen insurers were engaged in an uncompleted deal with Silverstein to provide 3.5 billion dollars in coverage for the World Trade Center.