US warned oil giant British Petroleum on Monday to take over response to the month-old environmental in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil firm BP may be "pushed out of the way" if it fails to perform in the oil slick clean-up, a top US official has warned.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the British company had missed "deadline after deadline" in its efforts to seal a blown-out oil well.
But he said BP had agreed to pay clean-up costs beyond the current US $75m (£52m) liability limit.
Salazar is due to visit the disaster site on Monday with other officials.
"If we find that they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way," said Salazar.
Salazar insisted that the full force of the federal government was bearing down on BP, which is legally responsible for dealing with a ruptured pipe that has been gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico from the wreckage on an offshore rig since April 22.
"I have no question that BP is throwing everything at the problem to try to resolve it because this is an existential crisis for one of the world's largest companies," Salazar told reporters.
"Do I have confidence that they know exactly what they're doing? No, not completely," he added.
The oil leak began more than a month ago, when a drilling rig operated on behalf of BP exploded, killing 11 people.
Tens of thousands of barrels of oil have spewed into the ocean since then from the well's ruptured riser pipe, 1,524m (5,000ft) beneath the surface
The spill has reached Louisiana and is threatening Florida and Cuba.
Salazar's comments came as President Barack Obama's administration faced increasing criticism over its handling of the crisis, including accusations of lax supervision of the lucrative offshore oil drilling industry.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal demanded "a greater sense of urgency and a quicker turnaround time" in responding to the oil lapping up on beaches and coating fragile coastal wetlands.
Jindal blamed the US Coast Guard, which is overseeing the response, for failing to deliver and lay out enough protective booms despite repeated requests from local officials who have been forced to "fill the current void in response efforts."
"We met today to take action, take matters into our own hands," a frustrated Jindal told reporters in the coastal port of Venice.
"We know we've got to do that if we're going to win this fight and protect our coast."
[Source: Al-Manar TV]
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