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A vote early this week would make New York the first state to act in response to the shooting, and comes as President Obama on Monday reiterated his desire for a federal assault weapons ban. Monday was the first full day of this year's legislative session in Albany, and freshmen lawmakers were still settling into their new offices as leaders readied a tentative deal to present to them in the afternoon.

"I believe we're very, very close to a final agreement on the bill," the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, told reporters. "There are very little sticking points."

Mr. Silver said the biggest remaining issue under negotiation was how to provide state financing to help school districts improve the security of their school buildings. He confirmed that legislative leaders hoped to hold a vote on a package of gun measures late Monday.

"The clear thing is, we are going to ban assault weapons," he said.

"I think the message out there is so clear after Newtown," he said, adding, "To basically eradicate assault weapons from our streets in New York as quickly as possible is something the people of this state want, and it's an important thing to do."

The deal being negotiated in New York would not only expand the state's ban on assault weapons, but would also reduce the legal capacity of gun magazines to 7 rounds, from 10. It would include new measures to keep guns away from the mentally ill, to increase penalties for gun crimes, and to require background checks for private gun sales. And it would expand Kendra's Law, which empowers judges to order mentally ill patients to receive outpatient treatment.

"There's a real push and hope to do something today, but right now we're trying to make sure it's technically sound," said the Assembly majority leader, Joseph D. Morelle of Monroe County, the second highest-ranking official in the chamber. "If it goes into tomorrow, that's a possibility. But there's a sense that we'd like to do something."

Senator Jeffrey D. Klein of the Bronx, the leader of an independent faction of Democrats that has allied with Senate Republicans, said: "I think when all is said and done, we're going to pass a comprehensive gun bill today. And I think it's important and this is an issue that shows we can work together, Democrats and Republicans."

"Republicans, it's very clear, wanted harsher criminal penalties for illegal guns, which is something I agree with, but on the other hand we're also going to ban assault weapons and limit the number of rounds in a magazine," Mr. Klein added. "So I think putting those two things together makes it a better bill."

Senator Thomas W. Libous of Binghamton, the top deputy in the Republican caucus, called a gun control bill "inevitable," adding, "It's something that's going to go forward."

While the Senate has been pushing for tougher penalties for people who commit crimes with illegal guns, Mr. Libous said in an interview on WGDJ-AM that other aspects of the bill would make gun enthusiasts uneasy. He called it a "split decision."

"I'm not going to sugarcoat it," Mr. Libous said, adding, "There are a lot of things here that true Second Amendment believers are going to have some issues with."

Officials familiar with the negotiations said that draft language had been developed by the governor's office and legislative leaders, and that lawmakers planned to examine that draft language in closed-door meetings on Monday afternoon. A Cuomo administration official said no deal, tentative or otherwise, had been reached as of Monday morning.

The Legislature was scheduled to be in session only on Monday and Tuesday this week. For a vote to happen either of those days, Mr. Cuomo would need to waive the three-day waiting period for new legislation that is required in the State Constitution, something he has done in the past to allow for speedy votes on controversial legislative agreements.

The negotiations came amid a last-ditch lobbying effort by gun-rights groups and gun owners, many of them from upstate New York, who argued that passing new gun laws in a state that already has some of the toughest in the country would punish hunters and sportsmen but not cut down on violence. Mr. Cuomo has said his proposals would make New York's gun laws the toughest in the country.

The final push to reach a deal came after weeks of fast-moving negotiations between Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, and legislative leaders, who have long been divided over new gun control measures. The Democrat-controlled State Assembly has pressed for years to toughen New York's laws, while the Republican majority in the Senate has resisted them.

Mr. Cuomo and other Democrats seized on the Dec. 14 Newtown massacre to argue that lawmakers needed not only to take action, but also to do so swiftly. The governor unveiled his plan for new gun laws only last week, in his State of the State address on Wednesday.

The negotiations over new gun laws is the first big test of a new power dynamic in Albany. The Assembly remains controlled by Democrats, as it has been for decades, and is strongly supportive of gun control. The Senate, which had been controlled by Republicans generally opposed to new gun control measures, is now being led by a coalition of Republicans and dissident Democrats; those Democrats are also supportive of new gun measures.