深海漏油事故不会影响英美双边关系

Bilateral¹ ties will not be damaged by the continuing oil spill from a BP platform in the Gulf² of Mexico, the UK and US governments say.

英国政府与美国政府宣布，英国石油公司在墨西哥湾的深海钻井漏油事故不会影响到双边关系。

The spill is believed to be America's worst environmental disaster

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would discuss the crisis with US President Barack Obama this weekend.

The US state department denied suggestions that the spill was a source of tension between the two nations.

Meanwhile, US scientists said as many as 40,000 barrels a day may have been gushing³（涌出） out, doubling their estimates.

The researchers from the government-backed US Geological Survey said that the daily flow rate could have been between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels (840,000 - 1.7m gallons) before 3 June.

Since then BP has been able to contain some of the oil with a capping device.

BP said the device placed on the blown-out well collected 15,800 barrels of oil on Wednesday - slightly up on the 15,010 barrels collected in the previous 24-hour period.

Oil has been leaking into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on 20 April and sank off the coast of the US state of Louisiana, killing⁴ the 11 workers.

'Lack of integrity'

In the latest move, the administration announced that the chairman of BP, Carl-Henric Svanberg, has been asked to meet Mr Obama and the officer in charge of the relief effort（救灾工作） , Adm Thad Allen, at the White House next Wednesday.

Earlier, US Attorney General Eric Holder⁵ has warned that America would "not pay a dime⁶" for cleaning up and that BP would be held responsible for all damages.

And the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, accused BP of a "lack of integrity（正直，诚实） " over its approach to the spill.

Ms Pelosi is among a number of US politicians who have suggested that BP should be forced to suspend dividend⁷（股息，奖金） payments until it is clear the company has enough cash to cover all possible compensation claims.

That has raised concerns in the UK, where BP's dividends⁸ form a crucial part of pension funds for millions of Britons. The sharp criticism from the US has been described by some UK politicians as growing anti-British rhetoric⁹（修辞） .

On the markets BP's shares closed down 6% in London on Thursday, having earlier been as much as 12% down.