SANTA FE, N.M. - President Bush on Saturday welcomed the House vote to cut taxes by $550 billion over the next decade, prodded the Senate to finish work on its version this week and held out hope for a quick compromise.

''Since I sent my plan to Congress in January, the need for action on the economy has become even more urgent,'' the president said in his weekly radio address, citing the unemployment rate jump to 6 percent in April.

AT FRIEND'S HOME

While the House version is $176 billion smaller than the White House's original plan, the bill contains ''all the elements'' of that plan, Bush said. He said Friday's nearly party-line 222-203 House vote was a positive step.

''I urge the Senate to complete its work next week so the House and Senate can work out their different versions and get a tax relief bill to my desk as soon as possible,'' Bush said.

Bush was relaxing here at the home of a family friend for the weekend before a series of campaign-style appearances on behalf of the tax-cut plan in New Mexico, Nebraska and Indiana.

The Bush administration contends the House plan would create one million new jobs by the end of the year, a figure Democrats and many economists dispute.

In the Democrats' radio response, New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey said such a tax cut would further cripple already burdened state budgets.

''Every dollar we are in the red is a dollar that we can't invest in our economy, schools that won't be built, bridges that will not be repaired and jobs that won't be created,'' he said. ``Today, 46 states face crippling budget deficits totaling $70 billion.

''State budget deficits will force tax increases and service cuts that will only hurt the economy, yet the stimulus package offered by the president fails to provide a single dollar in aid to the states,'' McGreevey added.

The House plan would trim taxes on wages, capital gains and some business investments. It would speed up an increase in the child credit to $1,000 from $600, and provide some relief for married taxpayers. But it would give Bush a smaller reduction than he wanted on taxes on stock dividends. Bush had sought total elimination of such taxes.

A bill approved last week by the Senate Finance Committee -- and to be taken up by the full Senate on Monday -- is even more modest. It holds overall relief to no more than $350 billion and offers far smaller breaks for investors.

Still, Bush took heart in the fact that major tax-cut legislation modeled on his proposals was advancing.

''This week's progress demonstrates that both houses of Congress and both political parties agree that tax relief will help this economy,'' Bush said on the radio. ``Now the discussion is about how much tax relief the American people need and deserve.''

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

''We need at least $550 billion in tax relief over the next decade, big enough to make a real difference in the paychecks of American workers, big enough to help entrepreneurs create more jobs, and big enough to give our economy the boost it needs,'' he said.

The president and First Lady Laura Bush were spending the weekend at a vacation home of Roland W. Betts, a Yale fraternity brother of the president and former business partner in the Texas Rangers baseball team.

Bush was staying in New Mexico until Monday morning.

Presionando al Congreso desde lejos, el presidente George W. Bush exhortó el ayer a trabajadores en pequeñas plantas de Nuevo México y Nebraska a que lo ayuden a promover una mayor reducción de impuestos ante el Senado.

El incremento al 6 por ciento del índice de desempleo en abril ''debería ser una señal de alarma para el Senado de Estados Unidos'', dijo Bush a varios miles de personas reunidas en la Airlite Plastics Corporation, al promover una propuesta de ley ya aprobada por la Cámara de Representantes para reducir los impuestos en $550,000 millones durante la próxima década.

Su verdadero objetivo: un puñado de senadores moderados posiblemente indecisos que podrían ser convencidos a votar para superar la reducción de impuestos por $350,000 millones que el Senado ya aprobó previamente.

Uno de ellos, el senador demócrata Ben Nelson, saludó a Bush en el aeropuerto y compartió el escenario con él. El presidente hará un esfuerzo similar el martes para intentar convencer al senador demócrata Evan Bayh, cuando se reúna con un grupo de gente mayor en Indianapolis.

''Cuando ustedes hacen oír su voz, la gente en Washington tiende a escuchar'', dijo Bush en un discurso similar al que pronunció horas antes en una pequeña planta de plásticos en Bernalillo, Nuevo México.

''La mayoría de los nuevos empleos en Estados Unidos son generados por empresas pequeñas'', dijo Bush en Omaha.

La visita del Presidente a Airlite produjo de antemano un poco de publicidad negativa, cuando se les dijo a los empleados que tendrían que reponer el tiempo que no laboraran mientras la planta se usaba para promocionar el plan de ``empleos y crecimiento''.

Sin embargo, horas antes de la visita de Bush, la portavoz de la Casa Blanca, Claire Buchan, dijo que la empresa había cedido y le pagará el día a sus empleados. Nelson ha indicado que él podría respaldar una reducción de impuestos mayor, sobre todo si el gobierno apoya una cláusula en el presupuesto para proporcionar $20,000 millones a los estados más necesitados.