The Wall Street Journal says the U.S. administration and credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s are locked in a battle over the recent downgrade of U.S. credit reliability.

The U.S. daily said Monday that just minutes after the ratings firm downgraded the U.S.’s credit rating, the Obama administration and the ratings agency launched “public fusillades against the other.”

The report quoted White House aides as saying that President Barack Obama sees the rating agency’s decision as “unjustified” and believes the decision was based on “a flawed process.”

The daily said the U.S. government issued a series of public statements seeking to dismiss Standard and Poor’s assessment, “trumpeting a dramatic, last-minute, two trillion dollar snafu in the firm's calculations.”

Meanwhile, the ratings agency defended its analysis, saying that “the prolonged and near-disastrous conclusion of the debt-ceiling talks called into question Washington's ability to function.”