"I believe that serious bipartisan negotiations are extremely important and I said so in the meeting," he said.

"I didn't interpret anything I heard in the meeting as shutting the door on a process of serious bipartisan negotiations."

Mr. Bush has provided few details, saying that the specifics would have to be worked out in bipartisan negotiations.

It even seemed possible tonight, as a new flurry of bipartisan negotiations started, that significant numbers of Democrats could sign onto this plan.

Two weeks ago, Senate Republicans learned from Democratic press statements that their ongoing bipartisan negotiations had suddenly broken off.

Among the administration's tasks is to restart bipartisan negotiations in the Senate.

Those ideas were dropped after bipartisan negotiations.

The project is the result of 15 years of bipartisan negotiation, with costs to be shared equally by the state and federal governments.

At the same time, Mr. Bush provided few specifics, saying they would be worked out in bipartisan negotiations.

We'll negotiate, but it's got to be bipartisan negotiation.