BP TRIES TO STOP LEAK AS U.S. OIL SLICK SPREADS

British oil giant BP has used robotic underwater vehicles to try to cap a leaking well and prevent a growing oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico from developing into an environmental disaster.

Satellite images showed the slick had spread by 50 per cent in a day to cover an area of 1550 square kilometres although officials said on Sunday some 97 per cent of the pollution was just a thin veneer on the sea's surface.

BP has dispatched skimming vessels to mop up the oil leaking from the debris of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which sank on Thursday, still blazing almost two days after a massive explosion that left 11 workers missing presumed dead.