Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced he intends to bring a bill based on Hatch's original proposal to the committee on Thursday for a vote on whether to send it to the floor.

Legislation to end a flood of personal injury lawsuits over asbestos-related diseases has been bogged down for the past two years in Congress as lawmakers wrangle over the amount of the industry-supported fund, what types of diseases it will cover and who will be eligible for compensation.

Hatch, who chaired the judiciary panel during the previous attempts to create an asbestos trust fund, blames Democrats for the loss of an estimated 70,000 jobs at companies bankrupted by asbestos claims.

"They said if I could get a $108 billion trust fund passed through the committee, that they would come on board and make it work," Hatch said in an interview. "I don't think they thought I could get it done, but I did. We got a trust fund that went to $124 billion and every step of the way my colleagues on the other side would not live up to their word."

Specter has revised Hatch's plan and participated in 39 mediation sessions led by a retired federal judge in an effort to hammer out a bill that balances the interests of "the four toughest interest groups in this town" - manufacturers, the insurance industry, trial lawyers and the AFL-CIO.

"Senator Hatch came up with a very good approach on a trust fund, where we would establish a fund of money and individuals will be paid like they are paid on workmen's compensation," Specter said Thursday. "As we have worked through a maze of problems, everybody, understandably, wants every last bit of advantage, and if there's going to be insistence on that, we will not have a bill."

Democrats on the judiciary panel have hedged on whether they will support Specter's bill, but in a statement ranking member Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said bipartisan progress has been made on the asbestos litigation.

Hatch has been substituting for Specter as chairman of the full committee while the Pennsylvania lawmaker undergoes treatment for an advanced form of Hodgkin's disease. But Specter said based on his doctors' prognosis, "I expect to be able to do the job I always have" and he would lead the Senate floor debate next week on legislation overhauling the federal bankruptcy system.