WASHINGTON -- Despite a recalcitrant Congress and tepid public support, President Bush yesterday warned against underestimating his commitment to restructuring the Social Security system and said lawmakers who refuse to negotiate changes would come to regret it.

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The president also all but ruled out creating private retirement investment accounts outside the Social Security system, an idea some Democrats have floated as a possible compromise.

"In my judgment, the best way to go forward is to allow a personal account to be created out of the payroll tax," Bush told the Post-Gazette and other regional news organizations in a 30-minute Oval Office interview,

Opponents say diverting taxes now used to pay benefits to current retirees would undermine the long-term viability of the system.

Asked about an ABC-Washington Post poll that shows only 35 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the Social Security issue, Bush stressed that he was still in the early stages of selling his ideas . He said he was heartened that the poll also showed that a majority of Americans support some form of personal investment accounts and believe the system has serious financial problems that should be addressed.

The president said he was frustrated by the intense partisanship on the issue and suggested that Democrats' unified opposition to creating private accounts may end up hurting their party.

"Once people figure out there's a problem, I'd like to say to the politician who stands in the way of the solution: 'Be careful,'" Bush said. "I believe there will be a political consequence for people who do not want to participate in coming up with a solution. The American people expect us to work together."

Although no prominent Democrats have stepped forward to support his proposals, Bush said his aides have picked up "helpful feelers" from the other side of the aisle that Democrats eventually will come to the table.

"I haven't spent that much time -- yet -- working [Capitol] Hill for a particular piece of legislation, because we're not to that point yet," he said. "We want to work with members of Congress to help write a bill that can pass the Senate and the House."

Bush also responded to criticism that he has not spelled out his plan in greater detail and sent a bill to Congress.

"Sure enough the bill I send up . . . will be the first bill to go down," Bush said, making the sound of a balloon deflating to illustrate what would happen. "People say 'Bush's plan' -- I haven't laid out a plan, I've laid out some ideas that I think ought to be considered for a plan."

Key lawmakers have said Social Security legislation would have to be tackled this year to succeed, but Bush would not set a deadline for members of Congress to bring forward their own ideas. He also was careful to distance himself from any specific proposals already made public -- including a plan from Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., to create personal investment accounts similar to the president's while raising the retirement age to alleviate the system's long-term financial shortfall.

The president several times pointed out that the proposal for personal investment accounts laid out in his State of the Union address would not address Social Security's solvency problems. But he said he does see personal accounts as the only way to make sure that "a worker is more likely to get closer to the promise that the federal government has made -- a promise the federal government can't keep."

He also noted that Social Security's trust funds are now a "vault of IOUs" and that the government is spending Social Security surpluses on other government programs, emphasizing an emerging new line in the Republican argument for change -- that personal investment accounts are the only way to keep Social Security money out of the government's reach and create a system with "real assets."

During his scripted Social Security appearances in 15 states over the last few weeks, the president has spoken often of how personal investment accounts have fit into his broader goal of making America "an ownership society."

He touched on that theme yesterday, noting that his proposal for personal investment accounts was part of larger "macroeconomic plan" to encourage savings.

He did not pinpoint a time when he had first begun thinking about personal accounts as a part of Social Security, but said his views on personal accounts were also influenced by the gradual move within American society from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans.

Personal accounts, he said, are part of a philosophy that one of government's roles is to encourage more ownership throughout society, particularly in lower-income communities, and broadening the scope of the "investor class."

"People have a stake in the future of their country particularly if they own something," he said. "So I've always liked that idea."

Asked about the claim by some of his critics that his long-range goal is to dismantle President Franklin D. Roosevelt's program, Bush described Social Security as a "good thing" that had provided an important safety net for Americans -- but he underscored his view the program should be fundamentally changed.

"[There's] no question it worked for a lot of seniors and I want it to work for another generation -- the next generation," he said. "It's going to work for people who've retired, and those near retirement. It's not going to work for a younger generation."