The Prime Minister and President spoke for over 30 minutes today.

The Prime Minister expressed his sadness at the ongoing human and environmental catastrophe in Louisiana.

The President and Prime Minister agreed that BP should continue – as they have pledged – to work intensively to ensure that all sensible and reasonable steps are taken as rapidly as practicable to deal with the consequences of this catastrophe.

President Obama said to the Prime Minister that his unequivocal view was that BP was a multinational global company, and that frustrations about the oil spill had nothing to do with national identity.

The Prime Minister stressed the economic importance of BP to the UK, US and other countries.

The President made clear that he had no interest in undermining BP’s value.