Hinting that an announcement that she will run for the White House is just weeks away, Senator Clinton is returning to the national spotlight with a revised policy on Iraq and promotional appearances to boost sales of her re-released best-selling book, “It Takes a Village.”

Mrs. Clinton said yesterday that she opposed a “surge” in the number of American troops in Iraq unless the escalation was “part of a larger plan” that led to a resolution of the conflict. She reiterated her call for the country’s oil revenues to be divided fairly among its differing religious groups.

“I am not in favor of sending more troops to continue what our men and women have been told to do, with the government of Iraq pulling the rug out from under them when they actually go after some of the bad guys,” Mrs. Clinton said on NBC’s “Today” show. She left open the possibility of supporting a temporary increase in troops as part of a broader plan to stabilize the region, but she did not elaborate on what that plan would have to entail to gain her support.

Senator McCain of Arizona, a likely presidential contender on the Republican side, has pushed for a “surge” of at least 20,000 troops to stem sectarian violence in Iraq, and President Bush is said to be seriously weighing that option as he plots a new course for the war.

Mrs. Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who has drawn criticism from anti-war Democrats for voting to authorize military action in Iraq, indicated she had lost trust in Mr. Bush. “I’m not going to believe this president again,” she said. “A lot of us did, and it didn’t turn out very well.”

In an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Mrs. Clinton, along with Senator Ensign, a Republican of Nevada, pushed a proposal to create an “Iraq oil trust” similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund in which a “significant percentage” of revenues would be divided among “ordinary Iraqis.”

Saying she would decide on a presidential bid “after the first of the year,” the former first lady praised a possible rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Obama. “He is terrific,” she said on NBC, adding that the freshman Illinois senator was a “very exciting personality and has a lot to contribute to the national dialogue.” Her comments echoed those made by Mr. Obama about Mrs. Clinton when he stopped in New York earlier this month.

Mrs. Clinton has criticized the president repeatedly in recent months, and in doing so again yesterday she also offered a possible campaign refrain, saying the country needed “honest optimism.”

In addition to the television appearance, Mrs. Clinton spent 2 1/2 hours making small talk and having her picture taken with admirers as she signed copies of a 10th anniversary edition of “It Takes a Village” at a Barnes and Noble bookstore near Lincoln Center. A few hundred people, some carrying several copies of the book, waited in a line that snaked around the store’s top floor. A company spokeswoman, Carolyn Brown, said the store sold more than 1,000 copies of the book at the event. Another signing is scheduled for tomorrow night in Westchester, a Clinton spokesman, Philippe Reines, said.

Many fans offered her encouragement.”We hope you run,” one man told Mrs. Clinton. “Thank you. Thank you,” she responded. Another, Jason Ertischek, 22, of Brooklyn, called Mrs. Clinton his “idol” and predicted she would be America’s next president.