Barack Obama, the US president, has made a third trip to Louisiana to meet with officials involved in the oil clean-up operation in the Gulf of Mexico.

He warned British energy giant BP on Saturday not to shortchange local residents who have lost their livelihood - while paying out billions of dollars in dividends to company shareholders.

The oil slick has now drifted east and is closing in on the US coast near the state of Florida, where businesses at the tourist hotspot of Pensacola Beach should be preparing to greet a flood of tourists at this time of year.

Instead, they are getting ready to deal with waves of oil.

Al Jazeera's Cath Turner reports.