WASHINGTON- The new administrator of the US environmental agency said on Tuesday it is moving toward regulating the gases blamed for global warming, reversing the Bush administration policy.

In an interview on Tuesday with The Associated Press, Lisa Jackson said the Environmental Protection Agency will decide whether greenhouse gases are a danger to human health and welfare, the legal trigger for regulation under federal law.

Ms Jackson said the agency owed the American people an opinion.

'We are going to be making a fairly significant finding about what these gases mean for public health and the welfare of our country,' Ms Jackson said.

Recent decisions have hinted that the agency was leaning toward using a US law to regulate the gases, a step the Bush administration refused to take despite prodding from the Supreme Court.

In his first week in office, President Barack Obama directed the agency to review a decision by the Bush administration denying California and other states the right to control greenhouse gases from automobiles.

On Tuesday, the EPA announced that it was reviewing a Bush policy that prohibits using the federal permit process to require new coal-fired power plants to install equipment to reduce carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas.

Ms Jackson said on Tuesday that the agency was now turning its attention to the broader question of regulation under the Clean Air Act. The law has been used since 1970 to curb emissions that cause acid rain, smog and soot.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that it could be used to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but the Bush administration refused to use the law, saying it was the wrong tool.

Ms Jackson took a different position on Tuesday. 'It is clear that the Clean Air Act has a mechanism in it for other pollutants to be addressed,' she said. -- AP