Brazilian president criticizes oil spill in Gulf of Mexico

NASA MODIS satellite image, taken May 23, 2010, of the Gulf of Mexico shows the extent of the oil released from the Deepwater Horizon spill. The oil can be seen as a sheen on the water surface. BP was weighing whether to stick with the tricky "top kill" maneuver or try something else to plug the gushing well that has caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history, its chief operating officer Doug Suttles said on May 29, 2010. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday slammed the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a scandal of the developed world.

"I find it funny the way the Western press report the disaster," he said.

"If the disaster was made by Brazilian oil company Petrobras in the Guanabara Bay, the developed world would have used it against us," he said in a public speech here to applause.

The oil spill occurred after British oil giant BP Plc's Deepwater Horizon platform exploded in April. So far, an estimated 18 million to 40 million barrels of crude have gushed into the ocean and hopes of plugging the damaged oil well soon seem slim.

Oil has already reached the southern coast of the United States and the environmental damage and financial impact have yet to be fully estimated.

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