MIAMI - Officials are analyzing tar balls that washed up on an island off the northeastern Florida panhandle to determine whether they came from the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the US Coast Guard said Friday.

The tar balls were spotted on Santa Rosa Island, part of a chain of barrier islands facing the white sandy beaches of Pensacola, a prime Florida tourist beach.

"We have a team in place that will analyze to see if they are from this incident," said Tasha Tully, a US Coast Guard officer.

Having already contaminated the Louisiana coast, the worst man-made environmental disaster in US history is being driven toward Florida by winds blowing from the south and west and the gulf's loop current, which circulates in a clockwise pattern.

Meanwhile, Florida Governor Charlie Crist wrote to BP, the British energy giant responsible for the leak, seeking millions of dollars to protect the Sunshine State from potential damages.

Florida's 1,260 miles (2,000 kilometers) of western coastline is home to scores of tourist destinations, natural habitats and an important fishing industry. All of those are now threatened by the spill, Crist said in the letter addressed to BP America chairman and president Lamar McKay.

"Collectively, they generate 526 billion dollars for Florida's economy," said Crist.

"I am asking BP to immediately commit 100 million dollars to be spent in this critical and time-sensitive effort," said Crist.

"The threat to our state is real and imminent."

A powerful explosion ripped through the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, unleashing the devastating spill.

The fast-spreading slick could spell disaster for Florida, one of the world's top destination for tourists, with more than 80 million visitors a year.

At a time of high unemployment in other sectors, tourism in Florida generates more than a million jobs, bringing the state 65 billion dollars in revenue in 2008.