MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The White House told West Coast port workers and their bosses Saturday that their labor dispute is damaging the economy, and they should settle their differences.

President Bush did not mention the dispute in two speeches in Manchester and gave no indication otherwise that he planned to intervene directly as the lockout entered its second week.

But press secretary Ari Fleischer said, "The president's message to labor and management is simple: you are hurting the economy."

Bush spoke with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card about the lockout, Fleischer said, and a federal mediator continued talks with both sides, seeking to end a dispute sapping billions of dollars from the economy.

"You are hurting your fellow workers in unions in other parts of the country whose jobs depend on the products you ship," Fleischer said, giving the president's message to the dockworkers.

"His message to management is the same: people in the rest of the country who depend on products that your ports provide are starting to suffer setbacks," he said. "The president's message is, `Go back to work and resolve the problems.'"

Peter Hurtgen, the federal mediator responsible for ending the bitter contract dispute, met with both sides Saturday in San Francisco, said Kathleen Harrington, a Labor Department spokeswoman. While Hurtgen remains hopeful, "The issues remain very difficult," she said.

The lockout, which began Sunday at the nation's 29 West Coast ports in Washington, Oregon and California, is costing the U.S. economy around $2 billion a day, according to Robert Parry, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

As hundreds of ships laden with Asian cargo sat waiting along the coast, and trains flush with goods for export stacked up near ports, the shutdown was having a domino effect throughout the economy.

Nissan North America plans to eliminate the Saturday shift at its Smyrna, Tenn., plant that manufactures almost 500,000 Altimas, Xterra SUVs and Frontier pickups a year and will soon shut down if the lockout doesn't end.

Boeing Co., the world's largest commercial airplane manufacturer, also could see its production pinched as early as next week.

Union Pacific, the nation's largest railroad, had 55 trains parked across the Western United States, unable to move cargo. Grain shipments bound for export sat in warehouses, and growers of perishable goods such as apples and citrus worried that their harvests would not reach lucrative Asian markets.

As the Bush administration issued the evenhanded appeal, two senior administration officials said the president is considering appointment of a board of inquiry into the lockout to determine the economic impact of the shutdown and whether both sides are negotiating in good faith.

That would be a potential first step toward ordering workers back to their jobs for 80 days under the Taft-Hartley Act.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the president has not decided whether to deepen his involvement in the port stoppage. He is reluctant to intervene, the officials said, because the 1947 law has a poor success record and is politically sensitive.

The board of inquiry would determine within a matter of days whether the lockout is hurting the national economy and whether the parties are negotiating in good faith.

Bush then would have to make his case in federal court by requesting a ruling for the 80-day cooling off period because the dispute is "imperiling the national health or safety."

Fleischer would not say whether Bush planned to intervene.

The administration is communicating its position to both sides, principally through the Labor Department, the spokesman said.

On Saturday, a statement by Labor Secretary Elaine Chao reflected the administration's strategy of pressing both sides to end the dispute. "Both management and the union should recognize that workers, farmers and consumers are paying a price for this," Chao said.

The White House already has become involved indirectly in the West Coast lockout by offering the mediator's services, which the two sides accepted Thursday.

By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer