Lawmakers set to draft final bailout bill :source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional Democrats and Republicans plan to meet on Thursday to draft a final bipartisan Wall Street bailout bill, a Democratic source said on Wednesday night.

"Not too many unresolved issues remain," the source said.

The source spoke after meetings earlier in the day by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and members of the House of Representatives and Senate.

House and Senate Democrats, along with some Republican committee members, intend "to sit down at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) tomorrow to draft a final bipartisan bill to be passed and signed into law," the Democratic source said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd emerged from a meeting with Paulson and other Democratic senators saying there was no deal yet on a financial bailout bill, but he expressed optimism one could come soon.

"We're not there yet," Dodd told reporters, adding there was a "good possibility we'll get there in a day or so."

Dodd refused to discuss details of the negotiations, but said lawmakers would work deliberatively on a bill he said could have an impact for "decades."

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Peter Cooney)