The White House, coordinating a pan-governmental effort to break up the slick as it bore down on the Mississippi delta, offered "all available" resources, including military hardware if needed.

But it noted that under US law enacted under the Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster off Alaska in 1989, the owner or operator of an oil production facility is liable for clean-up costs and damages from a spill.

"While BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and clean-up operations, my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the Department of Defense to address the incident," Obama said.

The president's press secretary Robert Gibbs was more succinct: "under the Oil Pollution Act, BP pays for all this."

US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, also noted BP's responsibilities, as the operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which sank last Thursday -- two days after a blast left 11 workers dead.

"We will continue to push BP to engage in the strongest response possible," Napolitano told reporters during a briefing at the White House.

"We will continue to oversee their efforts, to add to those efforts where we deem necessary, and to ensure, again, that under the law, that the taxpayers of the United States ultimately are reimbursed for those efforts."

The officials however stressed that their emphasis on BP's responsibilities did not mean that the administration had judged the firm negligent in its response to the incident.

BP has shown "willingness, they have shown resolve, they have shown accommodation for what the government has asked of them," said Rear Admiral Sally Brice O'Hara, of the US Coast Guard.

Crews conducted a controlled "trial" burn Wednesday of one of the thickest parts of the slick, but heavier winds and high seas forecast through the weekend meant such operations were suspended indefinitely.

Brice O'Hara said the vanguard of the slick could hit land in the Mississippi Delta late Friday.

BP has been operating four robotic submarines to try and cap the ruptured well on the seabed some 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface.

Crews have failed so far to fully activate a giant 450-tonne valve system, called a blowout preventer, that should have shut off the oil as soon as the disaster happened.

A BP executive earlier agreed with a US government estimate that the oil leak could be pumping up to 5,000 barrels a day of crude into the ocean, far more than previously thought.

"I would say the range is one to 5,000 barrels a day," said Doug Suttles, BP Chief Operating Officer for Exploration and Production, interviewed on the NBC Today show.

BP was Wednesday named as a co-defendant in a lawsuit seeking millions of dollars of damages filed by two Louisiana shrimpers.

The shrimpers are seeking class-action status on behalf of "all Louisiana residents who live or work in, or derive income from," the Louisiana coastal zone, and who have sustained losses as a result of the oil spill.

Other defendants include rig owner Transocean, and Cameron International, the company which manufactured a key safety valve that failed to fully shut off the oil.

BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward, in an email to staff obtained by AFP on Tuesday, called the explosion on the rig a "tragic accident."

"We are going to do everything we can -- firstly, to control the well; secondly, to ensure there is no serious environmental consequence; and thirdly, to understand how this has occurred and ensure that it never occurs again," Hayward said in the email.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News