MONTREAL - The Bush administration's unwillingness to seriously confront global warming was increasingly at odds with the rest of the world last night as more than 150 other nations were poised to move forward with the Kyoto protocol.

The US faced widespread condemnation after persistently rejecting even the mildest commitment to deal with climate change.

Washington's behaviour represents a serious embarrassment to Tony Blair who has argued that he could obtain an undertaking from the US to tackle the issue.

The US position - highlighted by the walking out of talks by its chief negotiator Harlan Watson - was in contrast to other nations who readied themselves to move ahead with their commitments under the Kyoto protocol on climate change.

Ministers in Montreal were last night finalising details on how to act when the first stage of the protocol ends in 2012.

Campaigners hailed the apparent progress on Kyoto (albeit without the US) as a vital step forward in the effort to deal with climate change and said it showed the willingness of more than 150 nations to commit themselves to the process.

Of those nations, 36 are legally bound to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases.

But amid that progress, the elephant in the room remained the refusal of the Bush administration to act.

During negotiations on Thursday evening, Mr Watson walked out of the room after delegates sought an agreement for those nations not signed up to Kyoto simply to agree to further talks.

"If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it's a duck," Mr Watson reportedly said, as delegates sought to include the word "dialogue" in the draft agreement.

That agreement would not have committed the US to anything binding, and stressed it would not "open any negotiations leading to new commitments".

But even that mild undertaking was apparently too much for the Bush administration.

Not even the anticipated arrival of former US president Bill Clinton - was enough to shift the US.

Indeed, it was reported that the US delegation was not impressed by Mr Clinton's plan to attend the conference, at the invitation of Montreal authorities.

Clinton told the meeting that the Bush administration was "flat wrong" to reject the Kyoto accord and said cutting greenhouse gases was good for business and the planet. In an impassioned speech to hundreds of delegates and nongovernmental groups, Clinton rejected a major tenet of the Bush administration's argument for pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol emissions pact in 2001.