WASHINGTON – Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said for the first time Wednesday that Florida’s delegation will be seated at the party’s presidential nominating convention in Denver and will even have some hotel rooms to sleep in.

What he didn’t say was how many of the state’s 211 delegates would be invited – and whom they’d be allowed to vote for.

After a morning meeting with a Florida delegation, including state party chair Karen Thurman, Dean said that many details still need to be worked out and approved by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

But the Floridians said the chairman’s promise to work to seat Florida’s delegation was a breakthrough in the impasse that has left state Democrats wondering if they would be left out of the August convention.

“We are committed to do everything in our power to seat the Florida delegation,” Dean said after his meeting with Florida’s nine House Democrats, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Thurman.

It was a marked change of tone for Dean, who has been critical of Florida and Michigan – also stripped of its delegates – for breaking party rules by moving up their primaries.

The DNC took away all 211 of Florida’s delegates. Clinton won the Jan. 29 primary by 17 percentage points and has pushed for using those results to allot the 185 delegates that were supposed to be awarded by the vote.

That would give her 38 more than Obama, with another 13 pledged to former candidate John Edwards. She currently trails Obama by about 150 delegates nationally.

By contrast, the Obama camp has proposed divvying the Florida delegates up evenly since the Jan. 29 vote was not legal under party rules.

The meeting with Dean comes after the state party rejected a proposal to re-do the primary with a mail-in ballot. Subsequent proposals by Nelson and others to allow seating of half the Florida delegation also have gone nowhere.

For his part, Dean didn’t say how many delegates would be invited to Denver, or how they’d be divided up. Instead, a joint statement released by Dean and the Floridians said, “We all agree that whatever the solution, it must have the support of both campaigns.”

Spokesmen for both campaigns reacted cautiously.

“You really have to take a look at the particulars,” said Clinton spokesman Phil Singer. “The devil is always in the details.”

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Dean’s statement was “consistent with what we’d like” but how to split up the delegates still needs to be worked out.

Florida lawmakers were upbeat. U.S. Rep. Ron Klein hailed “a breakthrough to have the chairman say he’s going to do everything he can.”

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Clinton supporter, said Dean’s tone was much less combative than it had been. “He’s finally realized it’s counterproductive to our goal of electing the next president of the United States to continue to insist on punishing the state,” she said.

The joint statement declared: “While there may be differences of opinion in how we get there, we are all committed to ensuring that Florida’s delegation is seated in Denver.”

Florida is the largest of the nation’s swing states, and both parties will target it in the November election. A Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday showed Clinton would edge presumptive Republican nominee John McCain by 44 percent to 42 percent, if the race were held today. McCain would beat Obama 46 percent to 37 percent, according to the poll.

Clinton is ahead of Obama by 9 percentage points in the next large primary contest – Pennsylvania, according to the Quinnipiac Poll.

Wasserman Schultz said no Florida deal is likely to be hammered out until after that April 22 Pennsylvania vote. But in the meantime, Florida Democrats at least know they will have a place to sleep in Denver, according to Dean. Previously, the DNC has said there was no room at the inn for Florida.

“You would not believe the importance of having a hotel,” said Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla.

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(c) 2008, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

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ARCHIVE PHOTOS on MCT Direct (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): Howard Dean

AP-NY-04-02-08 1922EDT