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 Oil giant BP is to put US$20 billion in a compensation fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill and will not pay shareholders a dividend this year.

Barack Obama announced the compensation deal after talks at the White House with senior BP executives.

Mr Obama said a US$120 million fund would also be set up to compensate oil industry workers. He said he had heard growing concerns about the pace of compensation payments, and that the new fund would ensure all "legitimate" claims were paid.

Shortly afterwards, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said dividends would not be paid for the rest of this year.

Although BP has agreed to fund US$20 billion - roughly equivalent to one year of BP's annual profits - reports said there could be no cap on the amount BP might be asked to contribute to the fund. The company will pay US$5 billion into the fund, called an escrow fund, before the end of 2010, plus US$1 billion per quarter for the following three years.

BBC