One of the main difficulties in echo cancellation is the fact that the learning rate needs to vary according to conditions such as double-talk and echo path change. In this paper we propose a new method of varying the learning rate of a frequency-domain echo canceller. This method is based on the derivation of the optimal learning rate of the NLMS algorithm in the presence of noise. The method is evaluated in conjunction with the multidelay block frequency domain (MDF) adaptive filter. We demonstrate that it performs better than current double-talk detection techniques and is simple to implement.