A tentative agreement has been reached that will allow the U.S. stimulus package to pass through the Senate, officials said Friday night.

Several senators told the Associated Press that an agreement has emerged that will allow the package to pass with a $780 billion price tag. The senate vote is expected to be held within days.

"We've got a deal," Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown told Reuters.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had spent Friday in closed-door meetings with White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

The bill, which is meant to help pull the U.S. economy out of recession, requires 60 votes to pass. Democrats hold a 58-41 majority in the Senate.

Senate finance committee chairman Max Baucus said there appears to be enough votes to get the package to pass. About four Republicans are expected to put their support behind the bill, Baucus told Reuters.

A $780 billion package would be significantly smaller than the bill the Senate spent the week debating. When the stimulus package passed through the House of Representatives, it was at $819 billion, but estimates were suggesting it would have reached about $937 billion by the time it got Senate approval.

Democratic Senator John Kerry told reporters Friday night that the package will be split between 42 per cent tax cuts and 58 per cent government spending.

"It's a good balance," Kerry said.

The homebuyer tax credit and auto tax credit, which were approved by the Senate in amendments earlier in the week, will remain in the smaller package, senators said.

Senators are expected to take to the floor Friday night to announce the details of the agreement.

Final version will have to reconcile House, Senate bills

President Barack Obama has urged Congress to pass the legislation without further delay. The president wants to have the bill signed into law by mid-February.

A final version that reconciles the House and Senate bills will still need to be worked out.

Meanwhile, in Vancouver, International Trade Minister Stockwell Day said Canada is still waiting to see how the "Buy American" clause will appear in the legislation.

"We don't want any more provisions for protectionist activity because it will trigger this [retaliatory trade war]," Day said.

The House of Representatives' version of the bill contains a requirement that steel and iron used in the package's infrastructure projects be U.S.-made. The Senate bill that was being debated earlier in the week went further, stating that any goods used for those projects receiving funding from the stimulus plan must be made in the U.S.

The Senate, however, agreed in a vote on Wednesday night to water down the "Buy American" measure a bit so that it indicates that measures must not contravene international trade agreements.

With files from the Associated Press and the Canadian Press