(Reuters) - Republicans will try again to force the administration to approve the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline, this time by attaching it to a highway bill up next month, House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday.

President Barack Obama earlier this month denied TransCanada's application for the oil sands pipeline, citing lack of time to review an alternative route within a 60-day window for action set by Congress.

Republicans have since been looking for a vehicle to resurrect the $7 billion project, and Boehner said that would be a House Republican energy and highway bill.

If (Keystone) is not enacted before we take up the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, it will be part of it, Boehner, R-Ohio, said on ABC's This Week.

Environmentalists and some Democrats oppose Keystone, citing higher greenhouse gas emissions, while most Republicans say it would create needed jobs.

Republicans in the Senate also plan to introduce a Keystone bill. Some Senate Democrats back the pipeline, but its passage is not guaranteed in the body.

Parts of the House Republican plan, such as opening up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, stand little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate.

Attaching Keystone to a pending deal to extend payroll tax cuts for workers, which has greater bipartisan backing than the highway bills, is another vehicle Republicans are considering.

(Reporting by Kim Dixon; Editing by Paul Simao)

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