ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

LISA HAMM

UNITED NATIONS (AP)—Haiti’s ousted president, his hopes of returning to power by this weekend all but gone, called Thursday for a blockade of all air and sea trade to force out the country’s military leaders.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide reiterated that he would not return until army commander Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras steps down. But he said he would not waver in his fight to restore Haiti to democracy.

‘‘One, he must leave,’‘ Aristide said at a news conference following a speech to the General Assembly. ‘‘Two, I must return.’‘

Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, was to return by Saturday under a U.N.-brokered agreement reached in July with Cedras, leader of the bloody September 1991 coup.

But the army has violently resisted the agreement, which called for the ruling military to resign. A transition government has been unable to fully take control, and violence has heightened tensions.

An oil and weapons embargo imposed by the Security Council on the military government last week has nearly brought transport in Haiti to a standstill. The council also ordered that the assets of anti-democratic forces in Haiti frozen to pressure the military rulers to step down.

Expanded sanctions are being considered in the Security Council, but there was no immediate move to pass them. Diplomats said they would wait until next week to see the effect of the current embargo upon Haiti’s military.

Security Council President Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg said Thursday ‘‘the possibility of additional sanctions is there.’‘ But he said ‘‘this is not Oct. 30 yet, let’s wait and see.’‘

U.S. diplomats said the United States wants to move slowly before imposing a total trade embargo but had not ruled out doing so.

President Clinton said the United States was considering other measures against the country’s military rulers. He said those in Haiti obstructing democracy’s return ‘‘are making a grave mistake. And we are looking at what our other options are.’‘

Among the tighter sanctions under discussion, said Sardenberg, were measures to halt commercial air traffic to Haiti and deny visas to those who obstructed Aristide’s return.

Aristide called on the international community to tighten the screws.

‘‘We request a total and complete blockade, which is necessary, even essential,’‘ he told the 184-nation General Assembly in a 25-minute speech punctuated by applause.

During the speech, an estimated 5,000 Haitians rallied outside the United Nations to show support for Aristide.

In a news conference afterward, Aristide said the Haitian people would prefer an embargo to ‘‘death by weapons.’‘

‘‘If there is a total blockade, I am convinced that the military will not be able to hold out,’‘ he said.

Aristide called for an air embargo in addition to the current naval blockade, but said logistics would have to be worked out with the United Nations.

In Washington, Mike Barnes, an Aristide lawyer, said Aristide also wants sanctions against individuals responsible for the failure of the agreement, including a freezing of individual bank accounts and lifting of travel visas.

Cedras has said he will not step down until the Haitian parliament passes a law granting amnesty to anyone involved in the coup or later political violence. But the National Assembly has been unable to consider the legislation because many pro-Aristide lawmakers are in hiding.

Without a quorum, the parliament also has been unable to enact a law that would split the police from the army, a key provision of the U.N. plan.

Aristide said Thursday that if Cedras, members of his high command and other key figures left their posts Friday, he would summon parliament to vote on the two bills that same day.

‘‘We thought it was a very constructive speech,’‘ U.S. Ambassador Madeleine K. Albright said afterward. ‘‘He made it, I think, clear that the date itself is not as important as the furtherance of the … process.’‘