US President Gorge W Bush has denied there was any racial element in the treatmeny of people left to fend for themselves after Hurricane Katrina.

He made the remarks while touring the flooded city of New Orleans.

"You know, my attitude is this: The storm didn't discriminate and neither will the recovery effort. When those Coast Guard choppers, many of whom were first on the scene, were pulling people off roofs, they didn't check the colour of a person's skin. They wanted to save lives." Bush said.

The federal response to the disaster has been roundly criticised as sluggish and inept.

Meanwhile, business owners in the central business district of New Orleans were issued passes into the city to retrieve vital records or equipment needed to run their companies.

Military cargo airplanes have begun spraying the New Orleans area to kill flies and mosquitoes.

Though 50 percent of New Orleans remains flooded and teams continue to collect corpses, there were signs that the sens of hopelessness was finally beginning to lift.

Authorities have the raised death toll in the whole of Louisiana to 197.

Source: Xinhua/CRI