Bush: 'I Take Responsibility'

President Bush Tuesday took responsibility for government failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Mr. Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq. "And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."

The admission comes just days after accusing the news media and critics of the administration storm response of "playing the blame game," reports CBS News White House Correspondent Peter Maer.

"I want to know what went right and what went wrong," the president said. "I want to know how to better cooperate with state and local government, to be able to answer that very question that you asked, 'Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack or another severe storm?'"

In other developments:

The new acting head of FEMA, R. David Paulison, pledged Tuesday to intensify efforts to finding more permanent housing for the tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina survivors now in shelters. "We're going to get people out of the shelters, we're going to move on and get them the help they need," he said. Paulison has three decades of firefighting experience and a background in emergency management.

The New Orleans airport reopened on a limited basis Tuesday, reports CBS News Correspondent Steve Futterman, with three passenger flights arriving and three departing each day.

Mississippi landlords were being told strongly that they can't evict people just to rent to someone else for more money, reports CBS News Correspondent Lee Frank. With tens of thousands of people having no place left to live, county judges are trying to make sure renters are not pushed out.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the relief operation was entering a new phase.

Initially, he said, the most important priority was evacuating people, getting them to safety, providing food, water and medical care.

"Now we have to reconstitute the communities that have been devastated," Chertoff added.

He said the federal government would look increasingly to state and local officials for guidance on rebuilding the devastated communities along the Gulf Coast.

"The federal government can't drive permanent solutions down the throats of state and local officials," Chertoff said. "I don't think anyone should envision a situation in which they're going to take a back seat. They're going to take a front seat," he said.

Chertoff said that teams of federal auditors were being dispatched to the stricken areas to make sure that billions of dollars worth of government contracts were being properly spent.

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