BP sees slow progress in oil spill fight

Robot submarines have made halting progress in BP's latest bid to siphon off oil belching from its ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico, but tar balls and other debris from the spill posed new threats to the region's shoreline.

The BP oil spill, which began in April, is causing an ecological and economic catastrophe along the US Gulf Coast.

BP's latest attempted fix hit a snag on Wednesday when a diamond-tipped saw got lodged in the deep-sea pipe through which oil is billowing into the Gulf.

But BP freed the cutting tool after several hours of tricky manoeuvring of its robot submarines, paving the way for the cutting process to resume, according to a source.

Many thousands of fishermen, shrimpers and other seafood workers have been idle for weeks by government-imposed fishing restrictions that were expanded on Wednesday to cover 37 per cent of US federal waters in the Gulf.

The fragmented, far-flung oil slick posed a growing threat to several parts of Gulf Coast. Toxic goo from the spill crept to within 10 miles of Florida's northwest panhandle, where officials said it could make landfall by Friday.