Obama: I don't see any urgency

NEW ORLEANS -- Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama toured hurricane-scarred New Orleans on Monday after criticizing the White House for the slow pace of recovery from storms that hit the Gulf Coast almost a year and a half ago.

''There is not a sense of urgency out of this White House and this administration,'' Obama said during a Senate committee hearing on the response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The senators traveled to Jackson Barracks, the badly flooded National Guard headquarters, and then to the desolate Lower 9th Ward.

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Senator Barack Obama D-Ill., left, and Sen. Joe Lieberman ID-Conn. listen as Sen. Mary Landrieu D-La., talks during a briefing at Jackson Barracks after a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Katrina and Rita recovery in New Orleans.
(AP)

''President Bush is committed to rebuilding the Gulf Coast and rebuilding it stronger and better than it was before hurricanes Katrina and Rita,'' said Bush's coordinator for the Gulf Coast recovery, Donald Powell. AP