Houston  - With huge waves already rolling over Galveston Island and the Texas coast Friday morning, US President George W Bush sent an urgent appeal to stubborn residents who refused to evacuate.

Hurricane Ike was aimed dead-on to hit Galveston, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico, and Houston further inland, bearing winds of 195 kilometres an hour as it gathered steam over the warm Gulf of Mexico waters.

The storm is expected to make landfall between 0200 and 0600 GMT Saturday morning.

Houston, Texas- Soaring oil prices have pushed Exxon Mobil to a record profit for the second quarter of 2008, with the world's largest publicly-traded oil company on Thursday posting a 14-per-cent rise in net income to 11.7 billion dollars.

Representing the largest-ever quarterly profit for a US company, the rise mirrors strong quarterly performances by European competitors BP and Shell.

Revenue meanwhile climbed to 138.1 billion dollars for the period, up 40 per cent on Q2 2007, the Houston-based energy giant said in a statement.

The figures however come in below analysts' expectations, with Exxon shares remaining under pressure.

A report released on Tuesday articulated that Houston i