EU and Britain to keep talking past Johnson's Brexit deadline

The European Union and Britain are set to prolong Brexit talks past a midOctober deadline to try bridge persistent gaps holding up a new agreement, according to sources and documents.

As the year-end deadline approaches to put in place a new trade agreement with Britain, EU leaders meeting on Thursday and Friday will tell their Brexit negotiator to step up talks to get a deal by Jan. 1, 2021, according to a draft summit decision seen by Reuters.

UK negotiator David

Frost is then due to tell Prime Minister Boris Johnson if he thinks it is worth continuing the tortuous negotiations and whether a deal on everything from trade to transport and energy cooperation is possible.

A source close to the talks, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said Frost would say a deal was difficult but not impossible if both sides keep talking and work intensively in the coming weeks.

The EU summit is expected to conclude that progress in talks with Britain is "still not sufficient" to seal a new trading pact now and will also step up preparations for an abrupt split without a deal to avoid trade tariffs or quotas from 2021. EU leaders would also tell Britain it must implement in full its earlier Brexit divorce treaty.

This refers to a bill going through the UK parliament that would give the government the power to break that agreement - a measure London says is necessary to protect trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom if talks with the EU fail.

The bloc says, however, it would not implement any new trade deal with Britain if it fails to honour its earlier commitments.