While President Obama plans to name a Supreme Court nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens by late May, senators and aides said they expect the pick sooner following what they called a positive meeting today.

Obama "indicated that he would hope to have the nominee to us a little earlier than last year. And last year was late May," said Senate Judiciary ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., referring to the confirmation process for Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Aides involved in the issue said they do not expect Obama to wait until just before Memorial Day recess.

Sessions and Senate staffers briefed on the meeting called it a constructive, if general, exchange that could augur a less divisive Supreme Court confirmation process than expected. Disagreements over timing of the hearing and votes, however, appear likely.

Obama "asked that we try to move the nomination at a reasonable pace," Sessions told reporters. "And I told him that we would certainly do that." But Sessions said that if "disclosures of documents or controversies rise up," it could "slow things down."

A Democratic aide said disputes over timing similar to those that occurred last year over Sotomayor's confirmation hearing are expected.

Sessions said he told the president "we were going to work to have a positive but serious discussion of important legal issues and not try to personally degrade or embarrass the nominee. [Obama] thanked us for the way we did that last year.... He thought that was a good hearing."

Sessions said the meeting focused on generalities, not specific philosophy. But he said both sides realize "there is an honest and legitimate disagreement over the role of a judge and [if a] judge should allow their empathies or their analysis of the results of an individual case... to affect how they interpret the law."

"This is the big difference," he said. "This is the big problem."

Following the meeting, Obama called nine Judiciary Committee members to discuss the vacancy, a White House spokesman said: Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Arlen Specter, D-Pa.

Hatch, a former Judiciary chairman, last week faulted Obama for failing to consult him on the vacancy.