The chancellor, Gordon Brown, is set for a clash with the European commission at a meeting of EU finance ministers on Tuesday.

Brown will reject commission proposals that it be solely responsible for negotiating with the US and Switzerland over cooperation on the exchange of information to enable the taxation of savings held in third countries.

He will also oppose commission attempts to raise the minimum rate of duty of fuel as unwarranted interference and is expected to point out that the it was the Tories who agreed to the principle in 1992.