US President Donald Trump wants to stay engaged on climate change and has not abandoned the issue, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday, days after Trump announced he was quitting the Paris accord.

The White House hit back Friday at criticism of Donald Trump's decision to scrap a major global climate deal, accusing Europe of trying to "shackle" the US economy and refusing to acknowledge climate change is real.

With the United States virtually isolated on the world stage, a string of administration officials went on the offensive Friday to justify the Republican president's decision to abandon the 195-nation Paris deal curbing global emissions.

US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord is "shameful" and a "major error", France's Laurent Fabius, who helped the negotiate 2015 deal, said Friday.

"This decision, this speech, is a shameful mistake, a major error," Fabius, the former head of the COP21, the UN's climate forum, told France 2 television. He condemned the "lies" put forward on the subject by Trump.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, prompting a furious global backlash and throwing efforts to slow global warming into doubt.

The US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord is a global setback, but China, India and Europe are willing to step up their efforts to honour the pact, Chinese state media said Friday.

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced America's withdrawal from the Paris climate deal, signaling a policy shift with wide-ranging repercussions for the climate and Washington's ties with the world.

In a highly anticipated statement from the White House Rose Garden, Trump said the United States would abandon the current deal -- but was open to negotiating a new one.

The withdrawal of key players from the Paris climate deal would "complicate" implementation of the pact, the Kremlin said Thursday, as U.S. leader Donald Trump weighed up pulling out. 

China will "steadfastly" implement the Paris climate pact, Premier Li Keqiang said Thursday, urging others to do likewise, as US President Donald Trump was due to announce whether he will keep Washington in the deal.

"China will continue to implement promises made in the Paris Agreement, to move towards the 2030 goal step by step steadfastly," Li said in a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "But of course, we also hope to do this in cooperation with others."

Donald Trump has decided to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, U.S. media reported Wednesday, as the president kept the world guessing -- saying an announcement will come in the "next few days."

The European Union moved Monday to crack down on emissions cheating after the Volkswagen "Dieselgate" scandal by giving the EU executive more powers to monitor testing and fine automakers.