New York- Lawyers on both sides of the Bill O’Reilly sex harassment case began intense negotiations yesterday to hammer out a deal, the Daily News has learned.

They met late into the night at an undisclosed location in Manhattan, sources told The News.

The settlement talks are expected to resume soon, possibly as early as today.

A source close to the negotiations said last night, “Lawyers are talking, and we were hoping for a deal as soon as tonight.

“But I would not be pessimistic that a deal hasn’t been made. I just don’t think they’ve reached it yet.”

The negotiations are the first since lawsuits were filed by O’Reilly and producer Andrea Mackris, 33, last week.

The News reported yesterday that Mackris’ team was ready to settle out of court.

An offer made during two weeks of talks before the lawsuits were filed – thought to be in excess of $2 million – was turned down by Mackris’ team, The News reported earlier.

But Mackris said it had been their “intention to always keep this in private negotiations. We never wanted to make this public.”

The initial talks ended when O’Reilly filed legal papers complaining Mackris and her lawyer, Benedict Morelli, were trying to extort $60 million in return for her silence.

“From what’s been going on in the media, they’ve taken every chance they get to throw mud at me,” Mackris said earlier this week when asked why the initial talks had broken down.

“That’s not a conducive atmosphere for resolution. We tried to negotiate this in private and they’ve blown that.”

But The News was told Morelli made approaches to the O’Reilly camp earlier this week to indicate they were willing to talk again.

Neither Morelli nor O’Reilly’s lawyer, Ronald Green, returned calls yesterday. Mackris also declined to comment.

In her suit, Mackris claimed she was subjected to sexually explicit comments by O’Reilly while she was an associate producer for “The O’Reilly Factor.”

In three telephone calls since August, she alleges he described his sexual fantasies regarding her, told of his sexual escapades and suggested she buy a vibrator.