GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) - As President Barack Obama set out on a three-state tour of the oil-tainted Gulf Coast Monday, the White House said BP appears willing to set up the kind of independent victims' compensation fund that the president is demanding.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton, speaking to reporters traveling with the president on Air Force One to the Gulf, said that the
White House and BP are "working out the particulars," such as the amount of the fund and how it will be administered. Burton said the account would be run by an independent third-party entity and would run into "the billions of dollars," though he wouldn't give a specific amount.