Obama vows to do everything to protect Gulf coast

WASHINGTON, May 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama vowed Thursday that his administration would do everything necessary to protect and restore the Gulf of Mexico coast.

"We're exploring any reasonable strategies to try and save the Gulf from a spill that may otherwise last until the relief wells are finished and that's a process that could take months," Obama told a news conference in the White House.

Obama also said that it's the federal government instead of BP that was in charge of the response to the Gulf oil spill.

"The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort," Obama said.

The president also blasted a "scandalously close relationship'' between oil companies and regulators.

Hours before the conference, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the director of U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS), a federal agency that oversees offshore oil drilling has resigned.

The MMS was severely criticized for being lax on safety after explosions sent a BP-leased offshore oil rig to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing a catastrophic oil spill.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, owned by Transocean and leased by BP, sank April 22 some 52 km off Venice, Louisiana, after burning for roughly 36 hours. The untapped wellhead continues gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

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