Console error with Curses

I am trying to debug a console app that uses curses. Every time curses init's, I get the following error:

File "/usr/lib/python2.7/curses/__init__.py", line 33, in initscr
    fd=_sys.__stdout__.fileno())
_curses.error: setupterm: could not find terminal

Is there a way around this? I'm assuming it's an incompatibility with the embedded console. Is there something else I need to do to make the embedded console compatible or is there a way to debug while running in a seperate console?

Any help is appreciated.

thanks

Charles