The City Council agreed Tuesday to appeal a federal judge's recent ruling ordering the removal of the cross from atop Mount Soledad in La Jolla, despite advice that the likelihood of success was "very remote."

The council voted 5-3 to direct the city attorney's office to file the appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Council President Scott Peters and Councilwomen Toni Atkins and Donna Frye cast the dissenting votes.

On May 3, U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. ordered the city to remove the cross within 90 days or face a $5,000-per-day fine.

The city has until June 2 to appeal that decision.

Peters cited the potential financial implications of disobeying Thompson's order as a motivating factor in opposing the appeal.

"I am one of the people that would love to see the cross stay up there," said Peters, who represents the area. "It just seems to me that the courts are just not going to let that happen."

"Where is the money going to come from?" he asked.

Councilman Kevin Faulconer argued the cross should stay because it was a national monument to veterans and a San Diego cultural asset.

"To me this is about preserving a nationally recognized war memorial that is an integral part of our San Diego history," Faulconer said.

The constitutionality of having the Christian symbol on city-owned property has sparked a 17-year legal battle.

Judges have twice ruled that the sale of the land surrounding the memorial to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association, which maintains the site along with hundreds of memorial plaques, was unconstitutional.

A state judge ruled last October that the city's proposed transfer of the cross to the federal government was also unconstitutional. The judge ruled that Proposition A, which was approved by 75 percent of San Diegans in July, was invalid and unenforceable.

The measure would have allowed the city to transfer the cross and surrounding walls and plaques to the National Park Service so it could be designated a national war memorial.

"We don't vote on our constitutional rights," James McElroy, the attorney for the atheist who initiated the case in 1989, told the City Council.

"It is the preeminent symbol of Christianity," McElroy said. "For that reason it is never going to be permissable on public property."

Before the vote, City Attorney Michael Aguirre described the likelihood that the city would prevail in an appeal as "very remote."

"My advice is that we look for some alternative solutions," Aguirre said. "We are basically running out of time as a city in terms of solutions."

Phil Thalheimer, chairman of San Diegans for Mount Soledad National War Memorial, the group that promoted Proposition A, was one of dozens of speakers who urged the council to pursue the appeal.

"We might not prevail, but let's not quit now," Thalheimer said.

Mayor Jerry Sanders met with senior White House officials Monday in Washington, D.C., to discuss efforts to prevent the removal of the cross.

"President Bush clearly appreciates the importance of the memorial to San Diego," Sanders said in a statement. "While no commitments were made, the White House officials present committed to studying the limited options that may be available to us at this late hour."

Sanders was joined at the White House meeting by aides to U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon.

Sanders and Hunter wrote Bush earlier this month, asking him to initiate condemnation proceedings to bring the city-owned land that the war memorial and cross sit on under the control of the National Park Service.