MIAMI (AP) - Miami's top federal prosecutor says the Justice Department is closely monitoring the Gulf oil spill but currently there is no criminal investigation of BP or the other companies involved.

U.S. Attorney Willy Ferrer told reporters Tuesday that Justice Department lawyers from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas are assigned to monitor events surrounding the spill.

Ferrer says they are primarily from the environmental crimes unit and civil division. Past oil spills and environmental disasters have resulted in criminal prosecutions and civil penalties.

Ferrer says the federal government's focus now is on stopping the oil leak and cleaning up the mess that followed the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.