如何在NPM安装期间使用不同版本的python？

我有终端访问VPS运行centos 5.9和默认python 2.4.3安装.我还通过以下命令安装了python 2.7.3 :(我用的是make altinstall代替make install)

wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.3/Python-2.7.3.tgz
tar -xf Python-2.7.3.tgz
cd Python-2.7.3
./configure
make
make altinstall

然后我通过这些命令从源安装了node.js:

python2.7 ./configure
make
make install

问题是,当我使用npm install并尝试安装需要python> 2.4.3的node.js包时,我收到此错误:

gyp ERR! configure error
gyp ERR! stack Error: Python executable "python" is v2.4.3, which is not supported by gyp.
gyp ERR! stack You can pass the --python switch to point to Python >= v2.5.0 & < 3.0.0.
gyp ERR! stack     at failPythonVersion (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:125:14)
gyp ERR! stack     at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:114:9

我该如何"将--python开关传递给Python> = v2.5.0"？