Pelosi is expected to intensify her efforts next week when Congress returns from its summer recess, pressing her 199 fellow Democrats in sessions in her Capitol office and on the House floor and meetings of the full caucus. Congressional aides expect the Senate to vote next week, with the House to follow perhaps the week after.

Pelosi says she is not using high-pressure tactics such as those that helped her eke out a victory for the president’s healthcare plan.

“I haven’t asked one person for a vote,” she said in the Thursday interview. “I’ve asked them to consider the intelligence and to give us their views on what they might be willing to vote for.

“This is not one of those things where you can talk people into something. All you can do is supply them the information and hope they draw the conclusion that you wish.”

With a number of her longtime liberal allies against a strike — or leaning that way — the coming days could be some of the toughest for Pelosi since she assumed control of her famously fractious party a decade ago. In effect, she is caught between the president’s wishes, a fractured Democratic caucus and the traditionally antiwar sentiments of her San Francisco base.