Bush Says Hussein Is ‘Backed Into a Corner’ : U.S. response: The President says Iraqi move will fail. His spokesman cites plans for a naval blockade.

President Bush dismissed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s declaration of a holy war as a “frantic ploy” of a “cornered radical” Friday as Bush’s spokesman announced that plans are being made for a blockade to seal off Iraqi trade.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he flew to Maine from Washington to begin his annual summer vacation, Bush said he is confident that Hussein’s move will fail to bring about an uprising throughout the Arab world.

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” said Bush, looking tired but showing none of the flashes of anger that marked his public appearances at the start of the latest Middle East crisis.

“He’s backed into a corner. Most of the Arab countries violently disapprove of what he’s done. He doesn’t have many options, so he’s resorting to radical rhetoric trying to mobilize opinion. His problem is everybody sees through this,” the President said.

As the United States and its allies continued to try to tighten the economic noose around Iraq, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said preparations for a naval blockade are under way. “We still think it’s premature to talk about any specifics, but we want to be prepared if it should become necessary,” Fitzwater said.

Asked about the subject, Bush said he was “not prepared to use the word blockade , but I am prepared to say that we will do whatever is necessary to see that the exports from Iraq . . . do not go forward.”

“I would advise Iraqi ships not to go out with oil,” he added.

One major worry that U.S. planners face in devising a blockade is evidence that Iraq has set up a base in Kuwait for firing Silkworm anti-ship missiles at vessels in the Persian Gulf. The Chinese-made missiles, with a 60-mile range, could be used to attack warships as they attempt to stop vessels in the gulf from approaching Kuwaiti or Iraqi ports, Pentagon officials said.

Before leaving Washington, Bush formally notified Congress of the deployment of U.S. troops to defend Saudi Arabia. The notification was designed to be “consistent” with the requirements of the War Powers Act, but was not formally made under the act, the White House said, a bit of legal technicality designed to underscore Bush’s position that the act infringes on the President’s constitutional powers as commander in chief.

“I do not believe involvement in hostilities is imminent,” Bush wrote. “To the contrary, it is my belief that this deployment will facilitate a peaceful resolution of the crisis.”

Speaking to reporters, Bush said he has seen no evidence “that Saddam Hussein would be foolish enough to cross that border” between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Bush’s assessment was backed by U.S. intelligence, which indicates the Iraqis are digging into positions in Kuwait, preparing for an extended war of nerves rather than an attack against U.S. troops.

“Their window of opportunity closed several days ago,” one knowledgeable Administration official said. “We don’t think they’ll move.” He said the U.S. assessment that the Iraqis do not plan to attack Saudi Arabia is “strengthened every day.”

“The Iraqi troops in Kuwait today are more concerned about an outside attack on them than they are in plotting an offensive,” the official said.

Administration sources said the Iraqis now have 150,000 soldiers in Kuwait, with another 20,000 men in southern Iraq moving toward Kuwait.

Only a fraction of the total in Kuwait--perhaps fewer than 15,000--are positioned directly on the border with Saudi Arabia. These troops are digging defensive fortifications and undertaking other actions that lead government analysts to conclude they are not preparing an attack.

On the Saudi side of the border, American forces deployed for Operation Desert Shield are growing rapidly as additional troops prepare to head for the Persian Gulf, apparently including 4,000 Marines from the 7th Marine Amphibious Brigade at Twentynine Palms, the desert base southeast of Barstow.

But while American officials discounted the likelihood of a direct attack by Hussein’s forces, they have become increasingly candid about the possibility of indirect attacks by terrorists against American interests.

The State Department notified American embassies around the world to be on the alert for threats, although deputy spokesman Richard Boucher said the government so far had “no specific information available at this time concerning such terrorist operations.”

“If specific, credible information on a threat to the public is received, the Department of State will provide information for travelers and other concerned parties,” Boucher said.

Asked what advice he would offer Americans worried about travel, Bush said, “I’d say don’t go to Iraq right now. How’s that?

“Don’t go to Kuwait. You’ll find it difficult to land,” he added. “I’d say to Americans, ‘Be careful about travel to certain areas right now. You could well see terrorist groups try to capitalize on this,’ ” Bush added. But, he said, “I’m not prepared to say nobody should travel any place in the Middle East. I’m not prepared to say that at all. I’d be careful where ever you go these days.”

For the Americans and other Westerners caught in Iraq and Kuwait, the situation has not changed, Boucher said. Iraq’s borders remain closed to those trying to leave. Thirty-eight Americans detained at Baghdad’s Rashid hotel were visited Friday by an American diplomat, a daily ritual since the Iraqi army brought them from Kuwait city. Penelope Nabokov, a 10-year-old from Albany, Calif., remains at the U.S. Embassy.

A group of 10 staff members and dependents from the Baghdad embassy will try again to cross the border today after being rebuffed on their first attempt Thursday, Boucher said. On the Jordanian side of the frontier, U.S. Embassy representatives will be waiting to help them get to Amman.

In Kuwait, where an estimated 3,000 Americans remain, the U.S. Embassy has contacted 900 citizens. While conditions are unsettled in Kuwait city, there have been no reports of harassment or threats to Americans living there.

The Iraqis, however, have told countries with embassies in Kuwait that the posts must be closed in two weeks, saying that because Kuwait is now a part of Iraq, separate embassies are unneeded.

Meeting in Brussels, North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers rejected that demand, calling the Iraqi annexation of Kuwait illegal.

Boucher said the United States is taking note of the fact that many non-Western foreigners have been allowed to leave Iraq and Kuwait despite the Iraqi government’s assertion that “security conditions” made it unsafe for Westerners to depart.

In addition to the Marines from Twentynine Palms, elements of the Army’s 24th Mechanized Infantry Division--about 2,300 troops equipped with artillery, armored vehicles and tank-killing attack helicopters--were bound for the Mideast, going from their base at Ft. Stewart, Ga., to the port of Savannah to begin boarding the Navy’s fast sea lift ship Capella for deployment to Saudi Arabia.

Friday, Air Force F-16 fighters from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and C-130 transport planes from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., began arriving in Saudi Arabia to join F-15 fighters that were deployed earlier in the week, the Pentagon announced.

As part of the effort to protect the troops, the Navy announced it had activated two hospital ships--the Mercy, based in Oakland, and the Comfort, based in Baltimore--for deployment to the area. About 1,200 personnel from Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland are being transferred to the Mercy, while doctors and nurses from Bethesda Naval Hospital in the Washington suburbs will staff the Comfort, officials said.

The Comfort was an oil tanker until it underwent a $200-million reconstruction completed in 1988. It is now one of the 10 largest hospitals in the United States, complete with operating rooms, intensive-care beds, a pharmacy, blood bank and a decontamination area for troops exposed to chemical weapons.

Lt. Col. Stuart Wagner, a Pentagon spokesman, would not discuss the overall numbers of troops to be deployed to Saudi Arabia, but the forces already announced will amount to more than 9,000. Pentagon officials have said no upper limit has been set on an eventual troop deployment that will number in the tens of thousands. The size of the American force will depend in part on commitments of troops by other nations.

“It will be a substantial force, and others will be coming in with more forces, too,” Bush said, referring to the effort to present an international military operation to demonstrate global opposition to the Iraqi invasion. “Our fighting men that are on the ground there will be safe.”

But the President said he could provide no estimate of how long the troops will be needed or of how much the deployment will cost.

“Listen, I’d love to see the economic sanctions be so successful that the forces could be withdrawn. And I think they will be successful. My problem is, I just can’t estimate the time right now, how long it will take,” he said.

As for a price tag, Bush said he had asked advisers to provide a cost estimate Wednesday evening, and “we’re beginning now to get some hard estimates on this.”

But regardless of the cost, “You can’t say, ‘I’m not going to do this because of the arts, or education, or the drug fight, or whatever,’ ” he said. “This is something that is in the national interest, and it is essential that we do it.”

The Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based organization that is often critical of the Pentagon budget, estimated that the deployment will cost $14.6 million per day above the normal operating costs for the U.S. military.

Bush will meet in Kennebunkport today with National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who returned to the United States on Friday night after meeting with Turkish leaders in Ankara and NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

The briefing is expected to review plans for establishing a naval blockade of ports through which Iraqi trade is conducted, particularly the Red Sea ports of Aqaba, in Jordan, and Muajjiz in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf ports of Kuwait.

Separately, the Pentagon announced Friday that a U.S. media “pool” made up of representatives from several major print and broadcast organizations would be sent to Saudi Arabia over the weekend to report on U.S. forces there.

A second pool made up of American reporters already in the Middle East will be formed to visit U.S. ships in the region.

“We are working to get the pool in there as quickly as possible,” Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said.

Gerstenzang reported from Kennebunkport and Lauter from Washington. Times staff writers William J. Eaton, John M. Broder and Melissa Healy, in Washington, contributed to this report.