2010-06-09 14:00

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said he wanted to know "whose ass to kick" over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, adding to the pressure on energy giant BP as it sought to capture more of the leak from its gushing well.

In a TV interview aired on Tuesday, Obama also said that if BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward worked for him, he would have fired him by now over his response to the 50-day-old spill, the worst environmental disaster in US history. It was triggered by an April 20 well blowout and rig explosion that killed 11 workers.

The US president, who himself faces growing criticism that his administration was slow to react to the economic and ecological catastrophe hitting four Gulf states, said he did not want to prejudge the investigation into the incident.

"But the initial reports indicate there may be situations in which not only human error was involved, but you also saw some corner cutting in terms of safety," Obama said.

Hayward says a "series of failures" led to the accident but denies these resulted from BP efforts to save costs.

In London, BP's share price was down more than 2 percent after Obama's remarks. BP shares have lost about a third of their value since the crisis erupted, and the company suffered another blow when Goldman Sachs downgraded its rating on BP to "neutral" from "buy" this week.

Reuters