The president also blasted a "scandalously close relationship'' between oil companies and regulators.

Hours before the conference, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the director of U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS), a federal agency that oversees offshore oil drilling has resigned.

The MMS was severely criticized for being lax on safety after explosions sent a BP-leased offshore oil rig to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing a catastrophic oil spill.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, owned by Transocean and leased by BP, sank April 22 some 52 km off Venice, Louisiana, after burning for roughly 36 hours. The untapped wellhead continues gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

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