SAN DIEGO — Hours before a court-ordered deadline, San Diego yesterday asked courts to stay a ruling by a federal judge who ordered a giant concrete cross removed from city-owned land. But Mayor Jerry Sanders signaled that if its appeal fails, the cross will come down and bring an end to a 17-year legal battle.

The city appealed a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Thompson Jr., who ordered the city to take down the 29-foot cross before Aug. 2 or pay daily fines of $5,000.

Thompson's May 3 ruling, which he described as "long overdue," found the cross to be an unconstitutional display of government preference of one religion over another.

City Attorney Mike Aguirre filed a request for a stay with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The city filed a related appeal Wednesday challenging the judge's ruling in favor of atheist Philip Paulson, who sued over the cross that has stood for a half-century on public land atop Mount Soledad in La Jolla.

Aguirre said he did not expect the appeal to succeed, but maintained that the city had a duty to exhaust its options to respect the will of voters who approved a measure designed to preserve the cross. Both Aguirre and Sanders said that they would respect the appellate court's decision.

"If for any reason the stay is not granted, the city will observe the judge's ruling," Sanders said yesterday. "In no case will the city pay a fine as a direct result of the judge's ruling."

Ever since Paulson filed suit in 1989, the city has tried to sell the property to a private buyer. But federal courts have repeatedly blocked the sale, saying the transactions were designed to favor a buyer who would maintain the cross. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the city's appeal in 2003.

San Diego voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot proposition last year to transfer the land beneath the cross to the federal government. That measure was designed to absolve the city of responsibility for the cross under the existing lawsuit, but a Superior Court judge found the proposition to be unconstitutional. The city also is appealing that decision.

In May, Sanders and U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, asked President Bush to exercise his power of eminent domain and preserve the cross. Sanders said yesterday that the White House had not yet indicated whether it would act.

The cross was erected in 1954 to honor Korean War veterans.