The City midfielder, now 22, has seen team-mate Shaun Wright-Phillips break into the England squad and now he wants a piece of the action for himself.
"One of my ambitions was to play for my country at U21 level and now I would like to win a senior cap," he told the official City website.
"I know how hard I will have to work to achieve that but I intend to give it my best shot.
"I reckon Shaun is a certainly for the World Cup squad in 2006. I will be approaching 24 by then and would like nothing more than being on that plane with him.
"I think Stevie Gerrard and Frank Lampard are head and shoulders clear as the best central-midfield players we have but behind those two there may be a chance to grab a place," reckons Barton.
"We are geared up here to be a really big club and if I can manage to be picked every week for City then it has got to be an advantage rather than sitting around on someone's bench or playing in the reserves," he added, possibly referring to talk linking him with a move to Liverpool last summer.