Despite continued "major disagreement" between London and Washington over US refusals to sign up to the treaty, signs were emerging that the US view was gradually shifting, Straw told parliament.

"The government is working hard to re-engage the United States on the urgency of tackling climate change despite our differences over Kyoto," Straw told the House of Commons after one MP accused him in a question of taking too soft a line over the issue.

"We are making every effort to convince United States policy-makers, at all levels, that the right environmental policy, set out in Kyoto, is also good for business," he said.

"We have to maintain our pressure, presenting them with the evidence, because their people will be as much at risk as the rest of the world if there is not international action."

The United States is refusing to sign up to the 1997 accord, which requires industrialised signatory nations to cut down on their output of so-called "greenhouse" gases, blamed for global warming.

Washington argues that the pact is too costly, and that it is unfair since developing countries are not held to specific pollution cuts.

At the end of last month, Moscow ended years of hesitation and decided to go ahead with ratifying the treaty, but US officials have insisted that Washington will stand firm.

Straw told parliament, however, that the American position was less clear-cut than it seemed.

"The headlines that the United States is against Kyoto, which are true, tend to obscure the fact that underneath there is a raging debate taking place and an increasing support for the position which we in the United Kingdom are taking and which, I am glad to say, we have now been joined in by Russia, which means the Kyoto Protocol can now come into force," he said.

The issue of climate will be a "major priority" when Britain holds the rotating presidencies of the European Union and the Group of Eightindustrialised nations' club next year, Straw added.

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