The SDLP leader believes the European Commission will allow Ireland to retain its status as a priority Objective 1 region for structural funding up until 2004.
At a lunch hosted by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Belfast yesterday, Mr John Hume said he had "every confidence that Ireland's negotiators" could extend this up until 2006.
Both the North and the Republic have Objective 1 status, and the island is regarded as a single region for Structural Funds.
It is generally expected that this will be phased out in the six years after 2000, because the island does not now meet the criteria of having gross domestic product of less than 75 per cent of the European average.
Details of new European funding arrangements should be announced on March 18th.
But sources in the European Commission said yesterday a final decision on Ireland's status might be delayed.
In the past, the Commission has said the GDP rule would be applied in the new phase of funding.
Mr Hume said it would be "unthinkable, that just as we are on the verge of a political agreement" national and European policy would act to weaken the North's economic and social prospects.
He believed there was a "very strong argument for special treatment" because the period of Ireland's Objective 1 status had coincided with the Troubles.
An agreement between the North's politicians was crucial, Mr Hume said.
If agreement could be reached in the political talks by Easter, he would expect the British and Irish governments to present it to a European Heads of Government summit taking place in Cardiff, Wales, on June 15th and 16th.
He would then expect the summit to mandate the European Commission to support it financially.
Mr Hume strongly opposed the UK decision to stay out of the European single currency, saying it was "yet another British mistake in Europe".
He said Northern Ireland was already on the geographical periphery and that this decision would put it on the periphery economically.
"I will be campaigning to get us into the euro as quickly as possible," he added.
The SDLP believed the Northern economy could only benefit from being associated with and learning from the Southern economy.
Mr Hume said the island of Ireland was perceived as a natural economic unit, and that it was futile to let political differences get in the way of economic realities.
"Efforts by certain academic commentators to muddy the waters by claiming there is no rational case for cross-Border co-operation are more comical than convincing," Mr Hume said.