Chancellor Alastair Darling has accused the Tories of "jumping on a passing European bandwagon" to attack the Government over the budget deficit.
He said the European Commission was wrong in its assessment of Government tactics in a report due out on Wednesday which says that treasury efforts to cut the deficit are not ambitious enough and inadequate to comply with EU economic stability rules.
"The European Union must concentrate on getting deficits down - and make sure we can achieve sustainable recovery," said the Chancellor after talks in Brussels with fellow EU finance ministers.
He went on: "We are doing it in a way which is sustainable, manageable, and which does not damage the social and economic fabric of our country.
"My judgment is that this is the right thing to do, and that judgment is shared by many economic commentators: the Commission advice is wrong."
He said the Conservatives would have to find £25 billion extra to they were prepared to follow the Commission's approach, adding: "The Tories have jumped on a passing bandwagon, and, unusually for them, it happens to be a European one."
Mr Darling was speaking after a meeting which shelved any decision on tougher regulation of hedge funds and private equity markets in the wake of the economic downturn.
The Chancellor welcomed the move, pointing out that the UK was not alone in voicing concern that the proposals on the table were too rigid and could hit the competitiveness of the City of London, Europe's largest financial centre.
"It was clear that we were not alone in having reservations. We could not sign up to something which would have the effect of excluding firms from Europe's single market. That seems to fly in the face of the single market."
But the proposals are likely to be back on the agenda for EU finance ministers in May.
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