BP said it was confident its latest experiment using a mile-long pipe would capture much of the oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, even as the company admitted yet another setback in the environmental disaster.

A specially-built giant concrete-and-steel box designed to siphon oil away was being brought into use today as a short-term solution to bottling up the disastrous oil spill threatening sea life and livelihoods along the Gulf Coast of America.

The worst US oil spill in decades spread into precious shoreline habitat along the Gulf Coast today as documents emerged showing British Petroleum downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at the offshore rig that exploded.

A new oil leak was discovered at the site of the wrecked drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, with an estimated five times more oil spilling into the water every day than previously thought, the US Coastguard said today.

Hundreds of hotel owners, fishermen and restaurateurs feared for their livelihoods today as a giant oil slick from a wrecked rig site oozed towards America’s Gulf Coast.