WASHINGTON - Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi went on a nationally broadcast talk show Wednesday to apologize again for a remark that triggered a racially charged furor and prompted calls for him to step aside as Senate Republican leader.

Lott said he made "a mistake of the head, not the heart" by saying last week that the nation would have been better off if 1948 segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond had been elected president. He admitted the comment, made during a 100th birthday tribute to Thurmond, could be seen as offensive and asked for holiday forgiveness.

"I'm sorry for my words," said Lott, attacked in recent days by some fellow conservatives as well as liberals.

"I wanted to honor Strom Thurmond the man. It was certainly not intended to endorse the segregationist policies that he was advocating 54 years ago," Lott said on the Sean Hannity Radio Show on WABC-AM in New York. The program was simulcast on Fox News Channel.

The flap has caused an embarrassment for Lott as well as the White House and fellow Republicans as they try to attract minorities, who traditionally vote Democratic, and as they prepare to push their conservative agenda in the 108th Congress, which convenes Jan. 7.

At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer reiterated that President Bush maintains confidence in Lott, but other Republicans said he needed to dig himself out of his own political hole.

Lott first apologized for the remark in a two-sentence statement on Monday. It was not clear if his appearance on Wednesday would bring the matter to an end.

Yet even as his Republican colleague prepared to go on the radio show, Sen. Arlen Specter, a leading party moderate from Pennsylvania, rose to his defense.

"I know Trent Lott very well ... and can vouch for the fact that he is no supporter of Senator Thurmond's 1948 platform," Specter said. "His apology should end the discussion."

FURY GROWS

For the most part, Republican congressional leaders have been publicly mum on the matter, which prompted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to call for Lott to step aside as a Senate leader.

The Family Research Council, a conservative group, suggested Republicans determine if they really want Lott to still be their leader, while People for the American Way, a liberal group, said Bush should ask him to step down.

"If President Bush's claim to be a 'uniter not a divider' has any credibility whatsoever, he will ask Trent Lott to step down as the Republican leader in the Senate," said Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way.

Just hours before Lott's office said he would appear on the Fox show, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota demanded "a fuller explanation and apology" from Lott.

Daschle, who initially accepted Lott's explanation, pushed for more as the furor over the remark escalated with reports on Wednesday that Lott made a similar comment two decades ago during a rally in his state by then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, at which Thurmond was a keynote speaker.

Lott, asked about this on the talk show, said he has long admired Thurmond's stand for a strong national defense and fiscal responsibility while also teasing him about his White House bid.

"I've always, you know, kidded Strom Thurmond about, you know, the kind of job he has done and, you know, the things he has stood for. And it basically is saying: 'You'd have made a great president.'" Lott explained. "He lights up."

Lott set off the controversy during a tribute on Capitol Hill last Thursday to mark the 100th birthday of Thurmond, a South Carolina Republican who is retiring on Jan. 3.

Lott noted his home state of Mississippi voted for Thurmond who ran for president as the nominee of the States' Rights, or Dixiecrat, Party, as a segregationist.

"We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years," Lott said.

Lott, in his apology on Monday, said, "A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embrace the discarded policies of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize."

Rep. J.C. Watts, the only black congressional Republican and a member of the House of Representatives Republican leadership, said on Wednesday, "We should accept his apology."