WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama's top Democratic ally in the US Senate hinted Tuesday that the pitched political battle to remake US health care could slip to 2010 in what would be a setback for the White House.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in charge of pushing Obama's top domestic goal through the upper chamber, signalled after closed-door talks with his troops that passing sweeping reforms this year may not happen.

"We're not going to be bound by any timelines. We need to do the best job we can for the American people. We want quality legislation, and we're going to do that," Reid said when asked about the goal of passing a bill this year.

Pushing the fight to 2010 could complicate the delicate coalition-building needed to pass the bill because it is a midterm election year, when the entire House and one third of the Senate are up for reelection.

But Reid spokesman Jim Manley stuck to the hoped-for 2009 end point, saying: "There is no reason why we can?t have a transparent and thorough debate in the Senate and still send a bill to the president by Christmas."

Obama has said he wants sweeping legislation remaking the US health care system to reach his desk this year, but internal Democratic feuds and Republican opposition to White-House backed plans have bogged down that effort.

Earlier, House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the House of Representatives would take up its version of the bill late this week, with key votes expected early next week and final passage before November 11.

Hoyer said the House would open its debate on the measure "either Friday or Saturday" and confidently predicted that Democrats had the 218 votes needed in the 435-seat chamber for passage.

"I'm confident of prevailing, and I'm confident of prevailing before Veterans Day," which falls on November 11, he said. "I'm confident we're going to pass this bill."

Hoyer, who manages the House floor, said Republicans will be allowed to offer their alternative to the Democratic-written, White-House backed legislation to overhaul US health care.

Flashpoints include a government-backed insurance plan popularly known as a "public option," and the issue of whether taxpayer monies might go to pay for abortions.

"I am pretty confident that we can get there, essentially making very clear that any money spent on the issue of termination of pregnancy will be spent not by the government, but by the individuals," said Hoyer.

The United States is the only industrialized democracy that does not ensure that all of its citizens have health care coverage, with an estimated 36 million Americans uninsured.

Yet Washington spends vastly more on health care -- both per person and as a share of national income as measured by Gross Domestic Product -- than other industrialized democracies, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The United States spent about 7,290 dollars per person in 2007, more than double that spent by Britain, France, and Germany, with no meaningful edge in the quality of care and lags behind OECD averages in life expectancy and infant mortality.

Reid said he hoped to soon have the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's assessment of how much the Senate plan would cost.

Democrats face unique hurdles in the Senate, where they appear short of the 60 votes needed to overcome parliamentary delaying tactics and pass the bill.

If, as seems certain, the House and Senate approve different versions of the legislation, they would have to agree on a compromise version and vote again to send the measure to Obama to sign into law.