The White House has announced that President Barack Obama wants U. S., state and local officials to cooperate in planning long-term recovery from the Gulf oil spill.

A White House release said on Wednesday that the president has asked Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to coordinate with leaders across the administration, and with states, local communities, tribes, people whose livelihoods depend on the Gulf, businesses, conservationists, scientists and others, to create a plan of federal support for the long-term economic and environmental restoration of the Gulf Coast region.

According to the release, at the Department of the Interior, senior officials met with members of the federal science team and BP officials to discuss the progress of additional well containment options and the status of relief well drilling efforts.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft said severe weather Wednesday was hampering response efforts in the gulf. High waves have kept crews from conducting skimming or controlled burn operations and waves have caused containment booms to break apart in some areas.

It has also been reported that the rough weather generated by Hurricane Alex has also delayed the connection of a third vessel to the floating riser pipe which would bring collection capacity up to 53,000 barrels a day.

Zukunft has said that storm surges could cause oil to be pushed further into inland areas, and the Coast Guard is monitoring the flow of oil and is prepared to deploy additional resources if inland areas are impacted.

He further said that weather has not had any impact on the drilling of relief wells.

Charles Taplin, a spokesman at the Unified Command Joint Information Center in Houma, La., said that even though Hurricane Alex, upgraded from tropical storm status late Tuesday night and further upgraded to a Category 2 storm Wednesday, is headed away from the area affected by the oil spill, its winds and the waves are making cleanup response difficult.

The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune also reported that in Louisiana, construction of offshore sand barriers, scheduled to resume after resolution of a showdown with the federal government over where the sand for them would be taken, was delayed. (With inputs from Agencies)