Washington  - A bipartisan agreement to pass a 700-billion- dollar deal to bail the country out of its financial crisis appeared to have been reached, legislators from the special committees handling the issue said Thursday.

But Republican leaders signalled they would not back the plan, which must still be ironed out with congressional leadership and the White House, according to MSNBC.

Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut and chair of the Senate banking committee, could not say exactly when the bill would pass, but said he expected action "within the next few days."

"We've reached a fundamental agreement on a set of principles," Dodd said.

Senator Bob Bennett, a Republican from Utah, said he expected the plan to "pass the House, pass the Senate, be signed by the president, and bring a sense of certainty to this crisis that is sill roiling in the market."

A day after presenting a stark picture to the country of a "long and painful resecession" if the bill fails to pass in the next several days, US President George W Bush is to meet at 2000 GMT at the White House with the two presidential nominees and Congressional leaders.

Bennett and Dodd were joined by Representative Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts who chairs the House financial services committee, and the ranking Republican on the panel, Representative Spencer Bachus.

Notably absent from the group was Senator Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on Dodd's committee and a leading critic of the proposal. He has declared he would not support the mammoth intrusion into capital markets unless other alternatives had been considered.

Dodd said the final plan would "send a message to the markets."

"We're very confident that we can act expeditiously," Dodd said.

Dodd refused to give details, but said that legislators had modified the original proposal from the White House to include concerns about the issues of effective oversight, preserving home ownership and limiting executive compensation in companies that benefit from selling their bad mortgage assets to the government.

The request for taxpayers to fix the financial mess on Wall Street has provoked anger and outrage not only in the public, but also among government officials. Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson, who testified for two days before the two committees in support of the proposal, has said he found it "embarrassing" for America to be in this position.

Frank said the barebones bill submitted by the White House now included "collectively a number of things that will make people legitimately feel better about the overall vote."

"We are on track, I believe, to pass this. The market should be calmed down," Frank said. (dpa)