Oil leak plugged?

Oil giant BP puts its chances of blocking the seabed leak that has gushed oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the past three weeks at about 60 to 70 percent.

"We have wrestled it to the ground, but we haven't put a bullet in its head yet," BP CEO Tony Hayward told news agency Reuters while inspecting the spill site by helicopter.

Hayward said the company would know if its "top kill" operation had worked within 48 hours, but that there were already some signs of success. The process involves the injection of thousands of barrels of mud into the well to plug the leak, which has surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst oil spill in US history.

Obama visits coast

Hayward spoke as US President Barack Obama visited Grand Isle, Louisiana, where he reiterated he would hold BP accountable for cleaning up the spill.

Obama vowed that vigorous action would be taken to fight the spill and repeated his assertion that "buck stops with me."

The president said a team of government scientists was looking at contingency plans in case the BP effort failed.

On his visit, Obama inspected oil-trapping booms at a beach in Port Fourchon, one of the areas most affected by oil from the spill being washed ashore.

Spain, the Netherlands and the European Union have offered equipment to help the United States with the clean-up. The European Commission said that it had received a request from the US coast guard to help provide skimmers to help recover oil.

rc/AFP/AP/Reuters
Editor: Andrew Bowen