Bush Steps Up His Anti-Hussein Campaign : Gulf crisis: He goes on the road to drum up support for his Mideast policies and for GOP candidates.

President Bush declared Thursday that he is “more determined than ever in my life” to thwart Saddam Hussein but also stressed he is doing everything he can to avoid bloodshed.

In fiery campaign speeches in several states and in a televised news conference, Bush focused on attacking the Iraqi president and called Hussein more brutal than Adolf Hitler. But he also emphasized several times that “I desperately want to have a peaceful resolution to this crisis.”

The President carried his message from Massachusetts to Florida on the first day of a six-day, cross-country blitz to drum up last-minute support for Republican congressional and gubernatorial candidates and appeal for support for his Persian Gulf policies. He arrives at Point Mugu Naval Air Station in California tonight to attend a rally Saturday for Sen. Pete Wilson’s gubernatorial campaign.

While Bush has previously vowed unyielding opposition to the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, his multiple appearances at forums outside Washington added new punch.

An audience at a political rally in the Mashpee, Mass., Middle School on Cape Cod cheered and applauded the President’s vow that “Hussein’s brutal aggression of Kuwait will not stand.”

Bush’s stepped-up focus on the gulf deadlock in recent days has several roots--among them, the fact that an election season is in full swing and that his attention is no longer diverted by the budget debate.

The new intensity seems also to be related to the rapidly approaching need to decide what to do as the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait city runs out of food and water for the eight U.S. diplomats and an undisclosed number of private American citizens holed up there.

The President could try to replenish the embassy--and risk setting off the spark that ignites the gulf tinderbox--or he could pull down the flag and order the embassy personnel to leave.

“They are cut off from food. They are cut off from other supplies. They are surrounded. And our flag still flies, but the rights of these American citizens at this very moment are being denied by Iraq’s brutal dictator,” the President said in a message that was generally unchanged from stop to stop during the day.

And as the crisis drags on, the White House has begun to feel pressure to clarify whether it is leading the country toward war or toward a diplomatic solution.

On Thursday, the President seemed to send two messages, reiterating his no-compromise stance and stressing his wish for peace.

“Sand is running through the glass,” he said at a news conference in Orlando, using a metaphor that could be interpreted as a hint of possible war to come. He added, “I don’t think the status quo can go on for ever and ever.”

But he also declared: “I am not trying to sound the tocsin of war.”

When a reporter pointed out that the President seemed to be saying that he simply hoped Hussein would back down, Bush replied: “That’s what he ought to do. The hope is eventually he might do that.”

Asked if Bush was concerned that some of his angrier remarks might be creating a perception that the United States is headed for war, White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu said, “The President has been very careful to make sure there is no misunderstanding, that every effort he has been making with personal diplomacy is not mistaken for unwillingness to do what is necessary” to force an Iraqi withdrawal.

As they have at previous campaign stops in recent weeks, small knots of opponents of his gulf policy showed up outside his speech sites, quietly holding up signs. In Massachusetts, one read “Kuwait Is Arabic for Vietnam,” a reminder of the drawn-out Southeast Asian conflict.

“No one wants a peaceful solution to the crisis more than I do, and no one is more determined to see this aggression turned back,” Bush said at the Mashpee school rally.

“We are giving sanctions time to work, and I hope there will never be a shot fired in anger,” he said. But, in his more insistent message, he said, “I owe it to you, the American people, to make this clear--very clear: There will be no compromise on the stated objectives of the U.N. Security Council resolutions--none at all.”

Bush bitterly derided Hussein’s characterization of Americans being held in Iraq as “guests.”

Referring to hostages staked out as “human shields” near possible military targets, Bush said, “I don’t believe Adolf Hitler ever participated in anything of that nature.”

Later asked if that was an exaggeration, Bush said: “I don’t think I’m overstating it. I know I’m not overstating my feeling about it.”

To the suggestion that he meet with the Iraqi president, Bush said, “It wouldn’t be much of a pleasant meeting.”

As he has in recent days, Bush reflected a degree of sensitivity about introducing the questions related to the gulf at a Republican Party rally and fund-raiser.

“I know there’s an awful lot of interest in what’s happening halfway around the world. And I also know that we’re standing here at an event that is strong on partisan politics. It’s the way the American system ought to be; it’s the way it is,” Bush said at a fund-raising rally in Burlington, Mass.

“I have no apologies, only pride in being at a partisan political event,” the President said.

Staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.