Metro

Deal near for 9/11 cleaners

Legal experts overseeing negotiations to settle lawsuits filed by sickened 9/11 building cleaners are “quite optimistic” a deal will be struck in the next several months.

Cornell law Professor James Henderson Jr. — one of two court-appointed “special masters” — told the judge yesterday ongoing talks have been “very fruitful.”

“I see a settlement coming out of this that the defendants and the plaintiffs can live with,” Henderson said during a conference in Manhattan federal court.

About 1,300 workers who cleaned up more than 160 buildings surrounding the former World Trade Center are seeking compensation for respiratory illnesses and other ailments that they blame on toxic dust from the destruction of the Twin Towers.

Similar suits filed by more than 10,000 cops, firefighters and hardhats who worked on the recovery and cleanup at Ground Zero resulted in a pending $712.5 million settlement from the city’s insurer.

bruce.golding@nypost.com