Accompanied by US Treasury Secretary John Snow at a meeting of business leaders in Birmingham, central England, Brown sought to calm tensions over US steel tariffs just hours ahead of US President George W Bush's state visit.

"We know that damaging trade and regulatory disputes between Europe and the United States have hindered commerce and damaged transatlantic relations," he told the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry.

"It is time for us all to make the effort to move beyond them... We have agreed today, alongside our efforts to revive the Doha trade talks, to proceed with a major transatlantic review."

The independent study would look at "how by liberalisation, the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers, and agreed approaches to competition and regulation we can reap the benefits, which could be as much as 100 billion dollars and one million jobs, from greater trade and investment between our two continents," said Brown.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to press Bush to drop US steel tariffs, which were declared illegal by the World Trade Organisation last week, during the US leader's visit to the country from Tuesday.

The ruling has prompted a threat by the European Union to hit the United States with billions of dollars in sanctions in retaliation for the duties imposed in March 2002.

The row is threatening efforts to liberalise global trade, the so-called Doha talks, that have already stalled since a meeting in Cancun, Mexico collapsed three months ago amid deep divisions between rich and poor nations.