The US State Department said it is now playing an active role in the oil spill response coordinated by President Barack Obama's administration.

It has made an informal appeal to foreign governments and international bodies such as the European Union for 18-to-24-inch-wide (46-61 centimeters) containment boom and fire boom, as well as for high speed, high capacity offshore skimmer vessels.

Diplomats are helping the government response team and BP -- which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded nearly two months ago -- with source equipment, supplies and services from foreign governments and international bodies.

They also forward foreign aid offers to the interagency group overseeing the spill response, locate potential sources of needed supplies and equipment and help BP's sourcing by reaching out to foreign ministries and expediting visa processing.

The United States will pay for whatever foreign assistance it receives, the State Department said.

Some foreign governments and private companies have expressed dismay after their offers of aid were turned down.

Last week, a Norwegian oil industry group that battles spills said the United States snubbed its offer to send 5,297 cubic feet (150 cubic meters) of dispersants to clean up the Gulf of Mexico gusher because the chemicals lacked US certification.

"The dispersants we use have not been certified in the United States even though they are more environmentally friendly" than the ones currently being used, Sjur Knudsen of Nofo told AFP.

BP has used Corexit, a powerful dispersant that environmentalists have warned could cause even more damage to fragile coastlines and wildlife than the crude itself.

But the State Department said it was considering all offers of aid with care.

"All offers of assistance are considered promptly and carefully, are expedited if needed, and are appreciated greatly by the American people as we address this threat to our Gulf Coast," it said in a statement.

International aid offers already accepted include two skimmers and 2.6 miles (4.2 kilometers) of boom from Mexico, three sets of sweeping arm systems from the Netherlands and 1.86 miles (3.0 kilometers) of boom from Canada, the State Department said.

The International Maritime Organization is also sending notifications about the spill to its member states and the European Commission's Monitoring and Information Center is coordinating EU aid offers.

Foreign offers of assistance have also come in the form of research and technical expertise, as well as equipment, including oil pumps.

The Unified Area Command, the interagency group coordinating the response, currently has 15 contracts for resources with other countries.

The State Department noted that it has assisted BP in directly sourcing equipment and technical experts from around the world, including from Algeria, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Latvia, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

earlier related report
Obama hopes for deal soon with BP on disaster claims
Theodore, Alabama (AFP) June 14, 2010 - President Barack Obama said he hoped for an outline deal with BP by Wednesday on a multi-billion dollar fund for oil disaster victims and vowed to use all his power to heal the Gulf coast.

Obama lunched with locals, talked up tourism and seafood industries and checked on disaster mitigation efforts during his fourth trip to the region, on the eve of his Oval Office address on America's worst environmental disaster.

It was another rough day for London-based energy giant BP, as its already reeling stock took another pounding. The company did however unveil new plans to staunch the flow of oil for a busted undersea Gulf of Mexico well.

Following days of lashing BP over its response to the crisis, Obama said Monday talks with the London-based giant had been "constructive" after the administration pressed for an escrow account to compensate disaster victims.

While it was still too early to comment on preliminary discussions, Obama raised hopes of a breakthrough before his planned meeting with BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg at the White House on Wednesday.

"My hope is that by the time the chairman and I meet on Wednesday that we've made sufficient progress that we can start actually seeing a structure that would be in place," he said at a staging post for oil clean-up efforts.

White House deputy spokesman Bill Burton said that the fund, to quickly process legitimate claims for compensation for people who had seen livelihoods hit by the disaster, would reach "billions" of dollars.

Obama's visit to Mississippi, Alabama and Florida represented a new bid to engineer a political pivot point in the two-month environmental and political crisis unleashed by the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in April.

His three previous visits to the disaster zone took in Louisiana, but the expanded itinerary was a sign of the widening footprint of the crisis spawned by the massive oil slick, and the rising criticism of his own performance.

Obama also lamented the threat to the unique Gulf of Mexico coastline, with its wetlands brimming with wildlife, sparkling white beaches and lucrative fishing industry in waters teeming with shrimps, crabs and edible fish.

A large chunk of those fishing grounds are now closed, as the oil pours out of a busted undersea well BP has tried but failed to plug, and some fishing fleets are tied up in port with little hope of resuming work.

Obama said he understood fears that the thick oil slick, which has clogged wetlands, fouled beaches and killed seabirds, could "have a long-term impact on a way of life that has been passed on for generations."

He said his administration would do "everything in our power to protect the Gulf way of life so that it's there for our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren."

In Gulfport, Mississippi, the president munched on shrimp and mini crab cakes to show local seafood was safe and implored Americans to visit the dazzling white sands of the southern coast.

Later in Theodore, Alabama, he said: "Let me be clear. Seafood from the Gulf today is safe to eat but we need to make sure it stays that way," announcing a multi-agency effort to protect the regional seafood industry.

To prove his point, Obama also had seafood for dinner, ordering crab claws, crawfish tails, ribs and nachos at a restaurant on route to his overnight stop of Pensacola, Florida.

Washington-based news organization Politico earlier ran an interview in which Obama vowed to push for a radical overhaul of US energy policy to wean the country off foreign oil and dangerously deep drilling.

"In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come," Obama said.

In London, BP shares plunged more than nine percent on Monday to 355 pence as investors fretted over the spiralling cost of the Gulf Mexico oil spill crisis and the future of the group's shareholder dividend.

Earlier reports suggested BP would bow to massive US pressure and decide to suspend dividend payments as its potential liability over the oil spill soars.

Obama administration officials said that BP met a 48-hour ultimatum Sunday to present a new plan to roughly triple the amount of oil it is capturing from the ruptured undersea well by the end of June, to more than 50,000 barrels, 2.1 million gallons, a day.

The company is currently siphoning up about 15,000 barrels of oil a day to a ship on the surface, about half the amount believed to be streaming into the Gulf from a well it has repeatedly failed to plug.

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