BP nears end of clean-up from Gulf oil disaster

BP will no longer have to clean up oil on the Gulf Coast unless officials can prove it is from last year's Deepwater Horizon spill, according to a plan approved by the US Coast Guard.

BP will now turn its attentions to restoring areas damaged by the leak. About $1bn (£625m) has been set aside for this.

About 90 per cent of the Gulf Coast has been deemed clean. The plan spells out protocol for when an area still needs to be cleaned and when BP's responsibility for that ends.

But Louisiana state officials would not give approval amid concerns at what they deemed a lack of long-term monitoring.

They also complained the Coast Guard gave them only five days to review the plan.