BOSTON - House lawmakers would consider scaling back mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders in Massachusetts, a key legislator said Friday, opening the door to a potential compromise on a stalled sentencing bill that also eliminates parole for some of the state's most violent repeat offenders.

Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty, House chair of the Judiciary Committee, made the offer during a meeting of a six-member conference committee trying to bridge the gap between widely differing versions of the bill passed by the House and Senate last year.

"I think there is an opportunity here to reach some common ground on those issues," said O'Flaherty, a Chelsea Democrat.

The bills approved in both branches include so-called "three strikes" measures that would remove the possibility of parole for inmates classified as habitual offenders because they have previously been convicted of two or more violent crimes.

But the Senate's crime bill also included a range of other provisions not acted on by the House, including the elimination of some mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. The sentences have been criticized for clogging state prisons with non-violent individuals.

The Senate bill would also grant enhanced wiretapping power for prosecutors, require mandatory post-release supervision for all state prison inmates, and allow for the compassionate release from prison of inmates who are terminally ill.

House leaders have balked at the broader Senate crime bill, suggesting that the two branches limit the legislation to the agreed upon three strikes measure and consider the other elements separately.

In an attempt to break the deadlock, O'Flaherty said he believed the House would agree to accept reductions in mandatory minimum sentences because it would free up valuable prison space that could be used to house habitual offenders, thereby creating a "logical nexus" between the two proposals.

O'Flaherty's view was backed by another conference committee member, Rep. David Linsky, D-Natick.

"This would give us an opportunity, if we confine ourselves to the mandatory minimum drug sentences and the habitual offenders, to put some real sense into our sentencing and our parole laws without (further) overburdening an already overburdened prison system," Linsky said.

The House offer would appear to satisfy the demands of Gov. Deval Patrick, who declared in his state of the state address last month that he would not sign any bill that did not include both the changes in mandatory minimum sentences and tougher habitual offender rules.

The Senate chair of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Cynthia Creem, D-Newton, called Friday's meeting a "good beginning" and said she would be open to discuss a compromise. But it was not immediately clear if other senators would agree to a bill that was largely stripped of its other provisions, such as the enhanced wiretapping. "The wiretapping piece as far as I am concerned is critical, and I am not prepared to support a bill coming out of this conference committee without it," said Sen. Steven Baddour, D-Methuen.

Critics of the three strikes provision claim it would dramatically increase prison overcrowding, target a disproportionate number of minority inmates and encompass crimes that are non-violent in nature. Lawmakers and other supporters of the bill have refuted the claims, saying the measure targets only those who repeatedly commit the most egregious of crimes.

The habitual offender measure has long been advocated by the family of Melissa Gosule, a 27-year-old woman who was raped and murdered in 1999 by a man who had 27 convictions but had served less than two years in prison. Renewed calls for passage came after veteran Woburn police officer John Maguire was fatally shot in December 2010 by Domenic Cinelli, who was paroled despite a history of violent offenses.

The New England Area Conference of the NAACP said Friday that the bill was an over-reaction to the Cinelli case.

"While this was a tragic and unfortunate situation, it should not set the stage for over-reaction and legislation based simply on taking punitive action which has little promise of protecting Massachusetts citizens," the group said in a statement.