Prime Minister David Cameron says he could see a pathway to a deal to keep Britain in the European Union after EU leaders told him at a summit in Brussels they would not accept discrimination against EU migrant workers in the UK.
"Nothing is certain in life, nor in Brussels, but what I would say is there is a pathway to a deal in February," Cameron told a news conference early on Friday after a substantial discussion of Britain's demands to renegotiate the terms of its membership of the bloc before a referendum on whether to stay.
In his longest address in more than five years of attending EU summits, the conservative leader told the 27 other national leaders over dinner that if they wanted to keep Britain in, they must address his voters' concerns about curbing immigration.
European Council President Donald Tusk, who chaired the session, said he was more optimistic after the discussion that an accord could be reached in February on all four key British demands because Cameron was looking for a "fair compromise".
He said Britain's bid to deny EU migrants access to in-work benefits - an income supplement for the lower paid - for four years had caused the most difficulty.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe's most influential leader, said there was a widespread will to reach an agreement to keep Britain in the EU.
Cameron's Eurosceptic opponents were dismissive, drawing attention to a brief official EU statement, which concluded: "Following today's substantive and constructive debate, the members of the European Council agreed to work closely together to find mutually satisfactory solutions in all the four areas at the European Council meeting on Feb. 18-19."
UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said: "David Cameron came, saw, and got hammered. How many times can his little plans be rejected? All he got as a result was a meaningless two sentences in a communique."
Matthew Elliott of the Vote Leave campaign said: "David Cameron's EU renegotiation is trivial. ... He claimed he put in 'hard work' for Britain but people will look at this and not believe his spin."
Some of those involved in the past months of detailed behind-the-scenes negotiations were upbeat, saying Cameron had signalled a willingness to consider alternatives and other leaders had engaged with the issue and given a clear signal to their teams to "go away and solve this" within two months.
Over filet of venison with parsnip mousse and Szechuan pepper jus, the British prime minister sought to convince fellow leaders that the UK's continued membership hinges on finding a convincing solution to the sensitive immigration question.
The other leaders around the dinner table said they wanted to help Cameron ensure that Europe's second biggest economy and one of its two top military powers stays in the EU. But several stressed that a change to EU treaties was out of the question, leaving a binding promise of future change the favoured option.
Opinion polls show the number of Britons wishing to leave is growing.
Cameron says he wants Britain to stay in the EU, but has hinted he could campaign for an exit if he fails to win an agreement that can reduce the influx of EU migrants, improve business competitiveness, give more sovereignty back to Britain and protect London's banks from discrimination by the euro zone.
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