Engineers have made "significant progress" in efforts to replace a cap over a gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, Coast Guard Commander Thad Allen said today.

"We've made significant progress. This could lead to the shutting of the well," Allen told NBC television's "Today Show" program.

The development means that BP may finally be on the verge of containing the worst environmental disaster in US history, after weeks in which hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude have poured into the US Gulf.

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