March 1 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush made his first visit in six months to the U.S. Gulf Coast and sought to assure residents still reeling from Hurricane Katrina that the federal government remains committed to rebuilding the region.

Bush walked through a neighborhood just outside Biloxi, Mississippi, that is still being rebuilt after the August 2005 disaster and ate lunch at a Creole restaurant near the French Quarter in New Orleans that had been flooded and looted after the storm.

``I fully understand there is still work to be done,'' Bush said after meeting with state and local officials in Biloxi. ``Of the things I've heard loud and clear is that there's a continued frustration with the slowness of the federal response at times.''

The government's lagging initial reaction to the hurricane helped trigger a slide in Bush's approval ratings that he hasn't recovered from, and the president continues to face complaints his administration hasn't done enough to speed the recovery.

In Biloxi, on the Gulf of Mexico coast, Bush drove along a commercial avenue lined with signs for restaurants and shops that no longer exist. Behind a towering McDonald's logo was an empty lot; another advertised an International House of Pancakes restaurant -- open 24 hours -- but there was no building.

New Orleans

The city of New Orleans was among the areas hardest hit by the storm, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. More than half the public schools there remain closed, and the Army Corps of Engineers is still demolishing homes too damaged by floods to repair, according to a February report by the Brookings Institution, a policy research organization in Washington.

``People around the country may be saying, `Oh these people from New Orleans, they are a bunch of cry babies,'' said Wayne Baquet, the owner of Li'l Dizzy's Café, where Bush lunched with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Democratic Representative William Jefferson, and other state and local officials. ``This town needs a lot. It needs its tax base. It needs the middle class.''

While there has been progress in rebuilding over the past year, the Brookings report says, ``many indicators suggest the recovery has been largely stagnant in more recent months.''

`Past Time'

In Washington, congressional Democrats highlighted their own plans to accelerate rebuilding.

``It is now 18 months past time to get our response right,'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said in a joint statement with other Democratic leaders.

Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said Bush should waive a requirement that local governments must contribute 10 percent of the money for reconstruction projects approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Housing and Urban Development Department.

``The federal government was caught flat-footed and the sooner the federal government stops pushing off responsibility on others, the faster this recovery will go,'' Landrieu said at the U.S. Capitol.

There are 47,000 individual projects delayed by the rule, according to Landrieu, who said she will propose an amendment to security legislation that would eliminate the requirement if Bush doesn't act by executive order.

$53 billion

Donald Powell, the president's coordinator for Gulf Coast recovery, said that $53 billion of federal money obligated for reconstruction has been spent. The rest will be doled out as state and local governments submit plans for using the funds.

In all, Congress set aside $110 billion to aid the storm's victims across the Gulf Coast region.

Bush, who today is making his 14th visit to the region since Hurricane Katrina hit, said rebuilding the Gulf Coast is still a top priority for his administration.

After a half-hour walking tour of Long Beach, a suburb of Biloxi, Bush emerged from one of the rebuilt houses to watch as the owners, Cheryl and Ernie Woodward, hoisted a U.S. flag in their front yard.

Bush recalled that he saw mostly ``piles of rubble, literally debris stacked upon debris'' on his first visit to the region after Katrina hit.

``But times are changing for the better,'' he said, ``and people's lives are improving, and there is hope.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 1, 2007 16:15 EST