David Cameron is pressing for tens of billions of euros in cuts to the EU's next seven-year budget as the price for Britain's agreement at the Brussels summit, which could run into Saturday morning.

The prime minister, who declared on arrival in Brussels that he would be "negotiating hard" on behalf of British taxpayers, has identified European commission plans to promote economic growth as a key area for cuts.

The prime minister's move has sparked a furious backlash in Brussels.

One EU official said: "David Cameron lectures us all on the need to draw up a budget for growth. And yet he now wants to cut the very part of the budget that will build up transport, energy and broadband infrastructure."

The prime minister found himself under fire after he told Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, that Britain would like to see cuts for the 2014-2020 EU budget in:

• The "Connecting Europe" project, which is designed to connect the continent through transport and energy infrastructure projects. The European commission has proposed increasing this by 350% – from €8bn (£6.5bn) to €36bn. Britain believes this should be merely doubled to €16bn.

• The new EU external action service and the wider EU administration budget. The European commission has proposed increasing this from €56bn to €63bn. Van Rompuy has proposed a trim to €62.63bn. Cameron told Van Rompuy that the EU should follow the example of Whitehall which has imposed cuts of between 25%-30% in administrative costs.

One British official said: "We can save tens of billions compared with what is on the table."

Cameron's decision to target the growth budget and administrative costs for cuts shows Downing Street has accepted that Britain will not win any further cuts in the two highest areas of expenditure. These are the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and structural funds that help build the infrastructure of poorer areas, notably in eastern Europe.

Van Rompuy pleased No 10 when he proposed cutting the original European commission budget from €1,053bn to €973bn. This represents a cut on the last seven-year budget, which ran from 2007-2013, and which is worth €994bn.

But No 10 said this did not go far enough because it only covered the "commitment ceiling" – the absolute cap on expenditure. Downing Street instead demanded details of the "payment ceiling" – the amount of money that would be distributed.

Van Rompuy is understood to have suggested this would be set at €940bn which is €2bn lower than the €942.8bn "payment ceiling" in the last budget. British officials had suggested that they would like to see the budget set at €886bn. EU officials now expect Britain to accept the new Van Rompuy ceiling of €940bn.

François Hollande, the French president, and Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, rejected Van Rompuy's compromise proposal out of hand. France benefits from CAP funding while Spain benefits from structural funds.

Aides to Hollande said Paris was in no hurry to strike a deal this week. "France has time until 2014," they said. Paris's biggest issue is a proposed cut of around €60bn in the common agricultural policy compared with the seven years until 2013 and that fact that France now funds around a quarter of the UK rebate.

"The United Kingdom is paying less than its wealth, France more," said a senior French official. "France pays a billion of the 4bn cost of the British rebate."

Both the Germans and French appear sanguine about the prospects of stalemate and failure over the next few days, with Paris incensed at being the biggest contributor to the British rebate and the Germans anxious about having to pay more to finance the EU.

"Germany will stay the biggest net contributor by some distance. We know that," said a senior German government official. "But that must stay in reasonable relation to the other net contributors. We will retain the UK rebate, but it must be bearable for the other net contributors."

He added that it would "not be crippling" if the EU's national capitals "need a few more months".

The Germans currently get a €2bn rebate and the Dutch €1bn, both of which are due to expire at the end of next year and which both governments insist must stay.

Any cuts to "Connecting Europe" will hit the Germans. The modernisation project is being used by Germany to revamp its domestic energy market as it turns away from nuclear power.

Britain appeared to be making less of a fuss over its rebate amid signs that Van Rompuy is to back away from plans to make every EU member state – and therefore Britain – make a contribution.

As he arrived in Brussels for the crucial summit, Cameron said: "These are very important negotiations. Clearly at a time when we are making difficult decisions at home over public spending it would be quite wrong – it is quite wrong – for there to be proposals for this increased extra spending in the EU. So we are going to be negotiating very hard for a good deal for Britain's taxpayers, for Europe's taxpayers, and to keep the British rebate."