UPDATE: Obama Tells Cameron BP Criticism Not Anti-British

12th Jun 2010 18:26

(Updates with details, comments.) LONDON (AFP) -- U.S. President Barack Obama told British Prime Minister David Cameron Saturday that the president's sharp criticism of BP (BP, BP.LN) has "nothing to do with national identity," Downing Street said. Obama also stressed that he had "no interest" in undermining the British oil giant and made clear he saw it as a global company, amid fears that his rhetoric was stoking an anti-British backlash over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. A spokeswoman for the prime minister's Downing Street office said Obama and Cameron spoke for more than 30 minutes. "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," she said. "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. "The president and prime minister reaffirmed their confidence in the unique strength of the US-UK relationship." The British press had expressed outrage at Obama's language and had urged Cameron to stand up to the president in the scheduled phone call. Newspapers suggested that Obama's popularity was waning, he was floundering over the environmental disaster and was looking for easy targets to hit out at, with one eye on the November mid-term elections. Obama had been referring to BP as "British Petroleum" and said he wanted to know "whose ass to kick" over the worst environmental disaster in US history. (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 12, 2010 13:26 ET (17:26 GMT)