I take responsibility, says Bush

NEW ORLEANS - President George W. Bush has for the first time taken responsibility for federal government failures in handling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.

"I want to know what went right and what went wrong.

"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack or another severe storm? That's a very important question and it's in our national interest that we find out exactly what went on so we can better respond," he said.

Federal emergency response (FEMA) head Michael Brown, a political ally of Bush with little hands-on experience, resigned yesterday.

The White House said Bush would address the nation from Louisiana on Thursday evening local time (Friday NZ time). Facing heavy criticism and the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, Bush has visited the Gulf coast three times in the past two weeks, most recently on Monday when he toured New Orleans in a flatbed truck.

In the latest sign of tension between the administration and the state of Louisiana, Governor Kathleen Blanco criticised FEMA for moving too slowly to recover the dead and said she had hired a company to do the job.

FEMA spokesman David Passey said it had always been understood that Louisiana would take the lead in the collection of bodies.

The storm, which displaced a million people, is likely to be the costliest natural disaster in US history, with estimates ranging from US$100 billion to US$200 billion. The US Congress has approved US$62.3 billion so far for relief.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Berlin that the military response to Hurricane Katrina had peaked, and that some of the 71,000 troops, 20 Navy ships and 300 helicopters in the area could soon be withdrawn.

The US Army Corps of Engineers set October 8 as its target date to have New Orleans "dewatered."

"We're not really saying 'dry,' we're saying 'dewatered,'" said Dana Finney, a Corps spokesman. That meant the city would be dry enough for engineers to begin working on infrastructure, even if some pockets of water remained.

Physical conditions in New Orleans, once home to 450,000, ranged from nearly normal on the surface in the high and dry French Quarter to whole neighbourhoods still under brown and polluted water in the lowest sections of town. About 40 per cent of the city was still flooded.

- REUTERS