British negotiators are locked in last-minute talks with their European Union and Irish counterparts, trying to put together a Brexit deal that Prime Minister Theresa May might agree over lunch in Brussels.
London has broadly agreed to many of the EU's divorce terms, including paying out something like 50 billion euros. But the issues of the rights of expatriate citizens and the UK-EU border on Ireland remain fraught, diplomats said.
Brussels officials and diplomats sounded increasingly confident of a deal over the weekend, but they caution that much will depend on the outcome of May's talks over lunch.
May hopes that her talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and his Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, due to start later on Monday, can persuade her 27 fellow EU leaders that sufficient progress has been made on divorce terms for them to agree next week to open talks on their future trade relationship.
"As we've always said about today, good progress is being made, there's more still to agree upon," a spokesman for May told reporters ahead of the meeting.
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In a sign of events moving fast, the man who will chair a crunch summit next week, European Council President Donald Tusk, cancelled a trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah and hastily scheduled his own meeting with May for Monday.
EU officials said Tusk scrapped his travel plans due to a "critical moment" in Brexit negotiations. He was standing by to discuss with EU leaders the preparations for trade talks.
Zoltan Kovacs, the Hungarian government spokesman who was visiting Brussels, told reporters he was "optimistic" of a deal.
Dublin, backed by the rest of the EU, is seeking strong assurances that London will commit to keeping business regulations in Northern Ireland the same as in the EU, to avoid a "hard border" that could disrupt peace.
"Hopefully, we'll find a way forward today," Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told state broadcaster RTE ahead of a cabinet meeting to discuss the issue before May's talks.
