UPDATE 1-BP escrow account will pay claims fast - Feinberg

* BP escrow account set up this week

* Account will use transparent methodology

* Losses suffered through Gulf of Mexico oil spill (Adds quote, background)

JACKSON, Miss., June 18 (Reuters) - A $20 billion fund set up by energy giant BP Plc (BP.L) to compensate victims for financial losses due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will pay legitimate claims fast, the fund's administrator said on Friday.

The fund would use a "transparent methodology" and there will be prompt payment of new claims while emergency interim payments will continue, said administrator Kenneth Feinberg, who has been appointed to run the fund.

"The goal is to help the people of Mississippi and the Gulf and I intend to do that and to be prompt (in payments)," Feinberg told a news conference in Jackson, Mississippi, accompanied by state Governor Haley Barbour.

"I would hope we will pay claims within 30 to 60 days," Feinberg said.

Claims could be filed over lost wages, business interruption, lost profits, personal injuries and even death in some instances, said Feinberg, who stressed the fund would be independent and bipartisan.

BP announced on Wednesday it would set up the fund after a meeting at the White House with President Barack Obama. It also said it would suspend dividend payments this year.

The spill, which began after an April 20 rig explosion, threatens the livelihoods of fishing communities and other coastal industries in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and parts of Florida.

Feinberg was tapped to dispense hundreds of millions of dollars to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was named by the Obama administration to preside over the BP escrow fund. (Writing by Matthew Bigg, editing by Tom Brown)