Vince Cable has attacked leading US Republican politicians for holding up a deal to reduce US government debt.
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, the business secretary called them "a few right-wing nutters in the American Congress".
Unless a deal on Capitol Hill is agreed before 2 August, the US Treasury could run out of money to pay its bills.
Mr Cable said it presented a bigger risk to the global markets than the continuing debt woes in the eurozone.
President Barack Obama wants to cut US debts by both reducing government spending and raising taxes.
Republicans in Congress are strongly opposed to the tax rises.
The two sides have to come to an agreement before the current $14.3tn (£8.7tn) limit on US borrowing can be raised.
An emergency meeting between President Obama and congressional leaders on Saturday failed to make a breakthrough.
'Step forward'
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It is very much in Britain's interest that the eurozone succeeds”
Vince Cable
Business secretary
Mr Cable also welcomed the agreement of eurozone leaders to grant Greece a second financial bail-out, but says more still needed to be done.
The business secretary said: "It hasn't solved the big problems, but it was a big step forward."
The new package of financial support for Greece was agreed on Thursday, and totals 109bn euros ($155bn, £96.3bn).
Eurozone leaders also agreed to reduce the amount of interest Greece has to pay on its existing bail-out and the rates on the bail-outs received by Portugal and the Republic of Ireland.
Mr Cable said: "It is very much in Britain's interest that the eurozone succeeds."
Turning his attention to the domestic UK economy, the business secretary said there were increasing signs of growth in the manufacturing sector.
But with the latest official UK economic growth figures out later this week, Mr Cable admitted that the economy still "isn't great".
He called on the Bank of England to consider another round of quantitative easing (QE) to boost economic growth.
Under QE, the Bank pumps new money into the financial system to try to boost bank lending.
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