Republican US presidential candidate John McCain has sharply criticised the Bush administration's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans.
Mr McCain, putting some distance between himself and fellow Republican President George W. Bush, said if he had been president during the 2005 catastrophe he would have immediately visited New Orleans after the storm.
"I'm just saying I would've landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally," he said.
US Republican Senator John McCain surveys the damage during a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans yesterday
Two days after the hurricane made landfall in August 2005, when immediate recovery efforts were chaotic, Mr Bush surveyed the damage during a fly-over in Air Force One while returning from a trip to the West Coast.
Yesterday, Mr McCain went on a tour of the lower Ninth Ward, a New Orleans neighborhood still struggling to recover from Katrina.
"I want to assure the people of the Ninth Ward, the people of New Orleans, the people of this country: Never again, never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way it was handled," Mr McCain said.
Later, talking to reporters on his campaign bus, Mr McCain said "all levels of government are to blame for the catastrophe that took place."
"I'm not specifically singling the president out ... but he shares the blame, obviously," he said.
In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Mr Bush "absolutely took responsibility for any failing on the part of the federal government."
"But at the same time there were problems at the state and local levels, as well, which they have admitted to," she said.
Mr McCain rejected comments from a Texas television preacher, John Hagee, who has said God punished New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina for planning a gay-pride parade. Mr Hagee has endorsed Mr McCain.
"It's nonsense, it's nonsense, and it's nonsense," Mr McCain told reporters, adding that he does not accept the views of everyone who endorses him