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Minneapolis (AP)

Pawlenty: Obama's BP declaration needed sooner

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Prospective presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty is questioning the pace of the government's response to the BP oil spill, but says it is too soon to assign fault for the disaster.

Minnesota's Republican governor addressed the situation in the Gulf of Mexico during a traveling version of NBC's "Meet the Press." He spoke Thursday hours after President Barack Obama took responsibility for heading off the worst spill in the nation's history.

Pawlenty says he wishes the declaration would have come sooner. He questioned why the latest move to plug the leak wasn't tried sooner.

Pawlenty said the blame for the blowout itself needs to await the formal investigation into company and regulatory practices.

Excerpts from the show's taping on the University of Minnesota campus are due to air nationally on Sunday.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)