Obama forcefully defends handling of BP's spill

President Barack Obama (C) listens during a briefing about the situation along the Gulf Coast following the BP oil spill, at the Coast Guard Venice Center, in Venice, Louisiana, in this White House handout photo taken on May 2, 2010 and released on June 7, 2010.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In his angriest words yet after being widely criticized for his response to the Gulf oil spill, President Barack Obama on Monday said he was talking to experts because he wants to know "whose ass to kick."

"I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answer so I know whose ass to kick," Obama said in an NBC News' "Today" interview airing on Tuesday.

Mentioning BP's high dividends, Obama said that instead the British energy giant should pay compensation.

"We also have to make sure that every single person that has been affected by this is properly compensated and made whole," Obama said.

BP is under political pressure to suspend dividend payments -- which total $10.5 billion a year -- after two U.S. Senators called on it not to pay out to shareholders until the full costs for cleaning up the massive spill are known.

BP is due to announce its second quarter dividend and results on July 27.

On his third trip to the Louisiana Gulf Coast since the oil spill began, Obama told reporters last week that BP should not be "nickel and diming" residents along the oil-stained Gulf of Mexico coast over damage claims while spending billions in shareholder dividends.

Obama, who has repeatedly vowed to hold the company accountable for the disaster and make sure that it foots the bill, has called on BP to pay damage claims expeditiously.

(Reporting by JoAnne Allen; Editing by Sandra Maler)