A method to control a burner for an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine with an exhaust gas after-treatment system including at least one catalytic converter. The method provides the steps of calculating the thermal power needed to reach the nominal operating temperature of the at least one catalytic converter and determining an actual number of revolutions with which to operate a fresh air pumping device based on the sum of a nominal number of revolutions, a closed-loop contribution of the number of revolutions with which to operate the fresh air pumping device, and a further contribution of the number of revolutions with which to operate the fresh air pumping device in order to ensure optimal thermal power exiting the burner.