The government's climate strange strategy is "seriously off course", according to a committee of MPs.

Members of the environmental audit committee said yesterday that current policies had failed to make a significant impact on UK carbon emissions.

And the chancellor should be prepared to use tax measures as part of a "more imaginative and radical strategy", concluded the report.

Meanwhile, household rubbish recycling rates in England for 2003 have risen to 14.5 per cent, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said yesterday.

But ministers are still  below their target of 17 per cent for this year and 25 per cent for 2005.