WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators reached a tentative agreement Friday on a multibillion-dollar farm bill that includes a hefty increase for nutrition programs at a time of rising food prices.

An intense series of closed-door bargaining sessions over how to pay for the five-year, roughly $280 billion bill ended Friday afternoon with senior Democrats expressing optimism that they would soon be sending the measure to President Bush.

“I don’t think there’s any question now that we can get this done by the eighth of May,” said Rep. Collin C. Peterson, the Minnesota Democrat who heads the Agriculture Committee.

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