White House says concerned about high oil price

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday said it was concerned about the "very high" price of oil and the impact on American consumers and small businesses.

"The price of crude oil, and therefore the price of gasoline, is very high and we know it's impacting America's consumers and small businesses especially. And we are very concerned about it," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters traveling with President George W. Bush to Tennessee.

While long-term steps can be taken, Perino said: "It would be wrong of the president to provide false hope to people to think that we are going to be able to have an immediate impact to reduce gas prices. This is something that we're all going to have to work through."

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Writing by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Marguerita Choy)