Encouraged by US President Barack Obama's engagement on global warming issues and his push for clean energy, European and Canadian ministers hustled this week to meet those in charge of the portfolios and to gauge prospects of the US Congress adopting key climate-change legislation by December, ahead of a crucial UN climate conference aimed at mapping a path forward after the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012.

Obama has said he would like to see the legislation feature a landmark carbon cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions and pump billions into the Treasury purse to fund renewable energy programs.

The European-style mechanism which penalizes pollutants and rewards the greenest industries should, in concert with the development of new sources of clean energy, reduce US gas emissions by 14 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020, according to goals put forward by the Obama administration.

British and Danish ministers of climate and energy Ed Miliband and Connie Hedegaard expressed optimism Tuesday over the possibility of concluding an agreement on the reduction of such emissions in Copenhagen and seeing an Obama administration commitment inspire action by other countries.

"President Obama's commitment is a very significant and very welcome advance on previous US policy and will in that sense have a positive effect on others' willingness to come forward," Miliband said after meeting congressional leaders.

"I think it's right to say that in Europe there is a real ... sense of new American leadership on these issues of climate change shown by President Obama and a very welcome sense of movement forward," he added.

Hedegaard said it was "extremely exciting" to sit down with new US officials keen on taking on global warming with international partners.

"Tackling global challenges like ... climate, we can not do it without the US, and for too long others have been hiding behind the American position," the Danish minister said, refering to countries that have refused to institute changes until the world's largest energy consumer and number two polluter takes the lead.

"So we need the US to engage," he added. "As soon as the US administration and this House (of Representatives) and Senate can sort of come up with the American position, the more strong the pressure will be on all of us" at the UN conference.

The European Union sees the arrival of Obama as a great boost for the chances of agreeing a far-reaching global deal for climate change at Copenhagen.

Obama's predecessor George W. Bush refused to ratify the Kyoto protocol which the Copenhagen meeting will seek to replace.

Also in Washington this week was Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice, following up on talks between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Obama, who launched a clean energy dialogue when the US leader visited Ottawa last month.

Prentice and the Europeans met with members of the House energy and commerce committee, including its powerful chairman Henry Waxman, who despite swirling economic crises insisted that US climate legislation could still be ratified by December.

"What we need to do here in the US is complete a bill this year, passed into law, and I would hope we will do it before Copenhagen," Waxman told reporters.

"The US has to catch up and become a leader once again on these environmental issues."

Some US experts have said that while action on a bill looks likely in the House, getting it through the Senate before Copenhagen would be difficult, especially with the lukewarm reception some energy initiatives are getting from lawmakers.

French Minister for Sustainable Development Jean-Louis Borloo was to meet Wednesday with US officials in charge of climate and energy issues, while former British prime minister Tony Blair was a guest Tuesday at a Senate panel on global warming.