The deal is understood to include in- principle support for the need for a pulp mill in the state, an industry restructuring package and an end to almost all native logging.

Conservation groups and forestry industry representatives have met frequently over the past three months to broker the deal.

Both are tight-lipped on specifics to ensure the process is not compromised and no one will say if a deal will be announced before the August 21 federal election.

About 100 forestry contractors met behind closed doors in Launceston yesterday for a briefing on the negotiations.

Tasmanian Forest Contractors Association chief executive Ed Vincent said later that contractors had shown support for the position put forward at the negotiations.

He said a number of possible outcomes had been outlined.

Mr Vincent would not comment on whether the agreement would support the Tamar Valley pulp mill.

"The association's position is that we support a pulp mill," he said.

National Association of Forest Industries chief executive Allan Hansard also refused to detail specifics but said both sides of the negotiating table had to make concessions.

"There is a real willingness to get something agreed because we want some certainty in the industry and to set the foundations for the future of the industry in Tasmania and enable it to grow," Mr Hansard said.

"Plantations are part of that, a new processing facility is definitely part of that."

Environmental groups have also presented parts of the deal to stakeholders they are representing in the talks but yesterday would not be drawn on how the agreement was tracking.

Mr Hansard said negotiations were not being rushed by the federal election.

"The primary objective is to make sure we get it right," he said.

Massive federal funding would be needed to fund an agreement to get industry out of high-conservation value forests and into certified plantation timber.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has endorsed negotiations between forestry industry representatives and environmental groups and said she would consider financing a restructuring of Tasmania's forestry industry.

In his recent visit to Launceston, federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said he supported the forest industry.

"But for the Howard Government, I think its pretty clear that the forest industry would have died in Tasmania," he said.

The Wilderness Society, Environment Tasmania and the Australian Conservation Foundation are representing the environment movement in the negotiations while the National Association of Forest Industries - whose members include Gunns Ltd, Forest Industries Association of Tasmania and Elders Forestry - and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union are among industry delegates.