"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," Joe Barton told Hayward during a congressional hearing, referring to the fact that BP bosses summoned to a meeting with US President Barack Obama had then agreed to set up an oil spill disaster fund.

"I apologize," said the Texas representative. "It is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case, a 20-billion-dollar shakedown."

His remarks about the fund, meant to pay for environmental and economic devastation from the worst ecological catastrophe in US history, drew immediate condemnation from the vice president and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Vice President Joe Biden attacked the comments as "outrageous" and "incredibly insensitive, incredibly out of touch," while Gibbs blasted Barton for caring more about big business than devastated fishing communities.

"What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated," said Gibbs.

"Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a 'tragedy,' but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments," Gibbs said in a statement.

Republican leaders quickly issued a statement distancing themselves from Barton, who has been the biggest single recipient of oil industry money in the House of Representatives since 1989, according to independent figures.

"Congressman Barton's statements this morning were wrong," said House Republican leader John Boehner and his colleagues Eric Cantor, and Mike Pence.

Barton's remarks provided Hayward with a brief moment of respite as he fended off a barrage of criticism from politicians on both sides of the aisle, venting spleen in part to please audiences back in their home constituencies.

The congressman later attempted to backtrack from his earlier position, but the retraction was unlikely to assuage anger in the Gulf region where the livelihoods of many are at risk from the spill.

"I apologize for using the term shakedown' with regard to yesterday's actions at the White House in my opening statement this morning, and I retract my apology to BP," his statement read.

"I regret the impact that my statement this morning implied that BP should not pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions in this incident."

Conn Carroll, an editor for the conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation, was one of the few to defend Barton, agreeing that the White House meeting a "shakedown of Godfather-like proportions."

"All of this was 'negotiated' while Attorney General Eric Holder, who has already threatened BP with criminal prosecution, stood in the corner," Carroll said.

"And what did BP get in return? A single statement from the president saying he did not want to drive BP into bankruptcy. Of course he doesn't. The mob can't collect from a bankrupt business."

But Barton's remarks were widely seen as a huge gaffe that will have gifted Democrats the opportunity to deflect Republican criticism of Obama's leadership over the spill and instead allow the conservatives to be attacked over their traditional links to Big Oil.

Douglas Weber of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks money in US politics, confirmed that Barton had received 1,676,930 dollars in total campaign contributions from the industry since 1989.

"He is the biggest recipient of oil and gas industry campaign contributions since 1989 among the current House members," Weber told AFP.

Some, even Republicans, called on Barton to step down from his position as ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

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