U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed British energy giant BP over dividend Thursday, saying the company should first compensate victims of the Gulf of Mexico disaster before awarding a shareholder dividend.

While asked if BP should stop the dividend and focus on funding the cleanup of the worst oil spill in U.S. history, Pelosi said: " Yes, of course, and that would be their best public relations, instead of taking out all these ads."

"They made 17 billion dollars last year. They should be paying these small businesses first," Pelosi told reporters at the White House after U.S. President Barack Obama met with congressional leaders of both parties.

Pelosi also accused BP of a "lack of integrity."

"It is clear that there was a lack of integrity on the part of BP when it came to what it told us about the adequacy of their technology, the sufficiency of blowout prevention and the capacity to clean up," she said.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, owned by Transocean and leased by BP, sank April 22 some 52 km off Venice, Louisiana, after burning for roughly 36 hours. The untapped wellhead continues gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The White House has called the spill the biggest environmental disaster that the country has ever faced.

BP has come under mounting pressure from vocal political opponents in the U.S. not to pay its dividend as scheduled next month until the full costs of the oil spill have been met.

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