Fires are a new hazard in New Orleans. Huge fires at buildings around the city hampered rescue efforts. At least six major blazes raged yesterday. Picture / Reuters

Fires are a new hazard in New Orleans. Huge fires at buildings around the city hampered rescue efforts. At least six major blazes raged yesterday. Picture / Reuters

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush's political agenda - indeed his very standing as his country's leader - is on the line as he launched an inquiry into the emergency operation and put himself in charge of it.

Congress returned yesterday with anger and embarrassment at the botched response to Hurricane Katrina stretching across normal party divides on Capitol Hill.

As the United States went back to work after the Labour Day holiday which traditionally signals the end of the northern summer, the President was everywhere visible at the helm. After chairing a Cabinet session, Bush held talks with congressional leaders on the hurricane crisis, before meeting representatives of charities leading the relief effort.

The White House also announced that Vice-President Dick Cheney will travel to the region today - the latest in a procession of top officials to inspect the devastation.

Bush tried to distance himself from the blame game already in progress. "I'll lead an investigation of what went right and what went wrong," he insisted.

"There will be ample time for people to figure out what went right, and what went wrong. What I'm interested [in] is helping save lives."

Barbara Bush, the former first lady and the President's mother, courted controversy by pointing out that many of the people forced out of their homes by Hurricane Katrina "were underprivileged anyway so this is working very well for them".

Even so, the President faces an uphill climb at best.

The next three months, political analysts say, could decide whether Bush acquires premature "lame duck" status.

It is essential he shows he is in command of the storm relief effort. Otherwise, they warn, his legislative plans, including further tax cuts, a contentious reform of immigration rules, and cuts in the Medicaid healthcare plan, will be in ruins.

Even before the hurricane struck, his approval ratings had slumped to under 45 per cent, the lowest of his presidency. Polls show two-thirds of Americans believe the federal Government, which he heads, was at fault, both before and after Katrina.

Senator Hillary Clinton, a likely presidential candidate for the Democrats in 2008, has urged the creation of a bipartisan blue-riband commission, similar to the bipartisan September 11 panel, to examine the handling of the hurricane tragedy.

The petrol price increase in the wake of Katrina, from an average national level of US$2.30 to more than US$3 a gallon, is also menacing for the White House. Unless swiftly reversed, higher petrol costs will feed into prices across the economy. Most economists expect at least a temporary faltering in growth in the final quarter of the year.