"These issues transcend borders," he said. "That is why protecting the world's environment is largely beyond the capacity of individual countries. Only concerted and coordinated international action, supported and sustained by individual initiative, will be sufficient."

The Bush administration argues the Kyoto protocol would hurt the US economy. Instead, the White House says it is spending almost $3 billion a year on energy-technology research and development combat climate change.

Ban, who took over as UN chief on Jan. 1, welcomed that effort, but said it's critical that the international community come up with a new strategy to deal with global warming after Kyoto expires in 2012. He added that climate change will be a top priority during his five-year term.

Like others, Ban noted the growing debate about climate change,

After years of arguing that not enough was known about the problem, Bush referred to global warming as an established fact in his State of the Union speech in January, and acknowledged that climate change needed to be addressed.

At a climate change forum in Washington last month, foreign lawmakers said that after hearing from US lawmakers, they sensed a shift in Washington toward greater cooperation with other countries on global warming.

"I am encouraged to know that, in industrialized countries from which leadership is most needed, awareness is growing," Ban told the conference organized by the United Nations International School.

Bush's State of the Union address was the impetus, in part, for a proposal by the UN Environment Program to hold a summit on global warming later this year. Ban has not said if he will move forward with a summit.

But he said he would discuss how best to confront the problem with world leaders at a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries in June.

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