President George W. Bush acknowledged yesterday the need to clarify when the Pentagon should step in to help with natural disasters or terrorist attacks, after a senior military official called the response to Hurricane Katrina a "train wreck".

At a meeting in San Antonio, Texas, yesterday, Major General John White, a member of the joint military hurricane taskforce, said: "That was a train wreck that we saw in New Orleans." He called for a "national plan that would address the search and rescue at this magnitude".