Washington ? Flawed government planning for major disasters led to rampant confusion during the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina, the White House concluded Thursday in a report focusing more on fixing shortfalls before the next storm season than on assigning blame.

The review described poor communications systems, delays in delivering supplies and overall tumult within the Bush administration, but revealed little new about the plodding federal effort in the days just before and after the storm socked the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29.

The 228-page document, including 125 recommendations for improvement, adopted a far softer tone than a scathing House report issued last week and offered scant criticism of President Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and then-FEMA Director Michael Brown.

“The magnitude of Hurricane Katrina does not excuse our inadequate preparedness and response, but rather it must serve as a catalyst for far-reaching reform and transformation,” the White House report concluded.

Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, left more than 1,300 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama dead, hundreds of thousands homeless and tens of billions of dollars worth of damage in its wake.

Workers inspect a barge,Thursday Feb. 23, 2006, that came through a break in the Industrial Canal levee during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The barge came to rest partially on some houses in the Lower Ninth ward. Workers are planning to cut the barge up for removal.

Days after the storm, Bush accepted responsibility for the faulty federal response and ordered White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend to conduct the internal inquiry.

“We will learn from the lessons of the past to better protect the American people,” Bush said Thursday.

The report’s recommendations span from dramatic reforms – including potentially giving the Pentagon control over the federal response in worst-case disasters – to smaller changes. It calls for a public awareness campaign on individual preparedness similar to the successful “Stop, Drop and Roll” slogan for fire safety information.

It says the government should improve its evacuation preparations, its plans for swifter medical aid and its overall blueprint for coordinating federal response efforts, calling it confusing. It also calls for state tax breaks to encourage citizens to purchase disaster gear and requirements that students take courses in first aid, starting next year.