Bipartisan financial reform deal uncertain: Dodd

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Christopher Dodd, the chief negotiator for the Democrats in U.S. Senate talks on financial regulation reform, said on Friday he was uncertain whether bipartisan support for a compromise bill could be achieved.

With one of the Obama administration's top domestic policy priorities in the balance, Dodd sounded cautious in Senate floor remarks following weeks of discussions that have snagged on a proposal to create a new financial consumer watchdog.

He said senators were in a position to develop "a good, strong bill." But on prospects for whether the end-product of the talks with Republicans will be a bipartisan measure, he said, "I don't know if it will happen or not."

Embracing most of the recommendations for tighter bank and capital market regulations made in mid-2009 by President Barack Obama, the U.S. House of Representatives in December approved a bill proposing the biggest regulatory changes since the 1930s.

But the Senate has yet to act and almost a year-and-a-half since a severe banking crisis that tipped the U.S. economy into a deep recession, financial regulation has changed little.

Dodd said the top goal of the bill he is trying to hammer out in the Senate will be to end "too-big-to-fail bailouts," like the 2008 taxpayer rescues of distressed financial giants such as American International Group Inc and Citigroup Inc .

With a political backlash from the bailouts looming as a major issue in upcoming congressional elections in November, Dodd said the Senate bill would also create a new, more orderly process for dismantling troubled firms that avoids bailouts.

(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)