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Analysts have voiced doubts as to whether George Bush can succeed in reducing the US' reliance on oil.

The US president is meeting carmakers today to discuss the feasibility of an increased use of biofuels such as ethanol.

In his State of the Union address last year Mr Bush highlighted the importance of reducing oil dependency, but he has been criticised for not returning to the issue in the ensuing period.

"The initial meetings that were scheduled [with the automotive industry] for last year didn't happen," Global Insight car industry analyst Paul Newton told BBC Radio Five Live.

"He was scheduled to meet the big three [GM, Toyota and Ford] three times and cancelled them."

Mr Newton suggested that owing to the shifting political climate in America, with Congress now controlled by the Democrats, the president is "a lot keener to toe the party line".

Last year oil prices shot up in the face of increased tension in the Middle East, peaking during Israel's conflict with Hizbullah militants in Lebanon last summer and prompting sales of environmentally-friendly vehicles and biofuels to increase.

But as fuel prices returned to their normal levels US drivers have similarly gone back to their gas-guzzling cars.

"It is a complex issue," the analyst went on to say. "I mean the American public love their big cars. It's a very big country and there's no scheduled sort of change in that attitude likely to happen."

Dr Bruce Tofield, a biofuel expert at the University of East Anglia, has meanwhile said that US carmakers should be focusing their energies on making their vehicles more efficient.

He told the Today programme that US plans to increase ethanol's share of total petrol use from three per cent to 20 per cent could be achieved "much more easily and much more cheaply by increasing the fuel economy and getting more miles per gallon, something which the EU is focussing on and taking a lead on".