The US will call for greater regulatory co-operation on food and vehicle safety, biofuel and accounting standards at this week's first meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council.

Al Hubbard, director of the White House National Economic Council, said the US embraced fully the call by Angela Merkel, German chancellor, to use political pressure to "convince the bureaucrats to make regulatory reforms that will result in a reduction in barriers between the European Union and the US".

Mr Hubbard, who will lead the US team at the talks in Berlin, said harmonisation of product standards would benefit consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.

He said the US would press the EU to lift regulations that barred US farmers selling food products that had been given certain treatments for pathogens that were legal in the US.

The NEC director also highlighted the scope for co-operation in framing the regulatory framework for biofuels. "It is in everyone's benefit to have harmonised standards so there can be free trade in biofuel products," Mr Hubbard said.

He said that the US was also strongly in favour of greater regulatory co-operation in financial and accounting standards.

The US interest in removing non-tariff barriers to trade with the EU partly reflects the political opposition to more free trade deals involving low-wage developing countries.

Mr Hubbard said the potential gains could be "very significant" - although he declined to put a numerical value on this.