In a measured White House news conference, Obama admitted the federal government's response was not perfect, but dismissed a growing media narrative that he had been disengaged from the nightmare BP oil spill.

"Those who think that we were either slow on our response or lacked urgency don't know the facts," Obama said, more than a month after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig triggered what he called a "disaster" and "catastrophe."

"This notion that somehow, the federal government is sitting on the sidelines and for the last three or four or five weeks, we've just been letting BP make a whole bunch of decisions is simply not true."

Obama said his government was in charge of every aspect of the mitigation effort, including BP's effort to cap the gushing oil well, and had several times ordered the British energy giant to do more.

He said at an early stage of the disaster he had asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, what military assets the United States possessed to cap the leak.

"What is true is that when it comes to stopping the leak down below, the federal government does not possess superior technology to BP," Obama said.

Obama dodged comparisons between the disaster, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which was politically devastating for the Bush administration, after a botched federal government response.

And he lashed out at "corruption" he alleged was left over from the Bush years in the Minerals and Management Service, which he said had been "plagued by corruption for years" even while overseeing oil exploration.

"In this instance, the oil industry's cozy and sometimes corrupt relationship with government regulators meant little or no regulation at all."

The president spoke as BP pressed on with an effort known as a "top kill" designed to send huge quantities of mud and cement into the undersea well in an effort to stop the oil and gas gushing out.

He also outlined four steps to prevent a repeat of such an accident, including suspending 33 deepwater exploratory wells being drilled in the Gulf.

"If nothing else, this disaster should serve as a wakeup call," Obama said, and extended an existing six month moratorium on deepwater drilling and suspended the issuing of new permits for six months.

Planned exploration in two locations off the coast of Alaska was suspended and a pending lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and the proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia were also halted.

The measures represent a partial reversal of a controversial Obama plan to expand offshore oil drilling announced at the end of March, which angered green groups and spurred charges by Republicans that it did not go far enough.

He said Thursday that he thought oil exploration still had a role to play in a comprehensive US energy policy, but only if it could be guaranteed to be safe.

Obama said the news conference was partly scheduled to convince the people of the Gulf Coast that the government understood their plight, and was doing everything it could to help them.

But he rarely departed from his trademark, cool, analytical public persona, and only hinted at personal soul searching on the disaster at the end of his appearance, when talking of his daughter, and his heritage.

"You know, when I woke up this morning and I'm shaving, and Malia knocks on my bathroom door and she peeks in her head and she says, 'did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?'"

"I think everybody understands that, when we are fouling the Earth like this, it has concrete implications not just for this generation but for future generations.

"I grew up in Hawaii where the ocean is sacred.

"When you see birds flying around with oil all over their feathers and turtles dying ... that doesn't just speak to the immediate economic consequences of this -- this speaks to ... how are we caring for this incredible bounty that we have?"

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