NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is looking to expand its footprint in the Bronx with a deal to acquire a bankrupt hospital targeted for closure by a state health commission.

Pending approval from a bankruptcy court, the hospital would take over operations at New York Westchester Square Medical Center, state health officials said. The 205-bed hospital was one of five New York City hospitals slated for closure in 2006 by the New York State Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, also known as the Berger Commission. “This is important to the Bronx community as a whole. Losing one hospital would have created a ripple effect,” a state senator of the Bronx, Jeff Klein, said yesterday. “I’m glad we’re able to keep the hospital open,” he said.

Hospital officials declined to say how much the deal was worth, but in a statement, Westchester Square’s president, Alan Kopman, echoed Mr. Klein’s sentiment. “Despite some dark days over the past year,” he said, “we’re looking forward to working with NewYork-Presbyterian to make this plan a reality.”

Last week, the Department of Health approved $5.8 million in funding to Westchester Square in a round of grants given to hospitals named by the Berger Commission. So far, two of five city hospitals recommended for closure, St. Vincent’s Midtown Hospital and Cabrini Medical Center, have closed ahead of a June deadline. In an e-mail message, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, Claudia Hutton, said that plans call for NewYork-Presbyterian to “realign services to meet community needs” under a new three-year agreement with Westchester Square.

Already, the two hospitals were “affiliated.” Since 1997, Westchester Square has been part of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, a network of 33 acute care hospitals. The system is anchored by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, which currently operates five main centers for care, including the Allen Pavilion, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian/ Columbia University Medical Center in Washington Heights, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, and NewYork-Presbyterian/Westchester Division, an accute psychiatric facility in White Plains, N.Y.

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for NewYork-Presbyterian said it was “premature” to disclose further details of the new deal. The hospital is “pleased with the state’s decision to continue these health care services to the Westchester Square community,” the spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail message. “There is still a lot of work to be completed.”