U.S. says accepting foreign help with Gulf oil spill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will accept offers from a dozen countries and international agencies to help contain and clean up the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the State Department said on Tuesday.

"The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries and international bodies, including two high-speed skimmers and fire containment boom from Japan," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

The United States has already accepted offers of assistance from the Netherlands and Norway, among others. It is also considering offers from countries as diverse as China, Kenya and Vietnam.

Overall, 27 countries have offered assistance ranging from vessels and dispersant, to fire boom and technical personnel. In most cases reimbursement would be required.

"To be clear, the acceptance of international assistance we announced today did not mean to imply that international help was arriving only now," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in an e-mail.

"In fact, before today, there were 24 foreign vessels operating in the region and nine countries had provided boom, skimmers and other assistance. As early as May 11th boom arrived from Mexico, Norway and Brazil."

The following link has details of what each country has offered: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/143488.pdf

(Reporting by Ros Krasny; editing by Chris Wilson)