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AFP
BRUSSELS
BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that"now is the time"to make a Brexit deal happen, as she arrived for a summit with EU leaders seeking to unblock stalled divorce talks.
May will pitch her vision of how to save the talks on Britain's exit from the union on March 29 to European leaders left frustrated by a dramatic breakdown in negotiations on Sunday.
Before the summit, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a stern warning that Europe must be prepared for a no-deal Brexit but as she arrived pledged to"try everything to find an agreement".
Negotiations are at an impasse over the issue of a legal backstop to keep open the border between British Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, an EU member.
May faces a battle to find a solution that is acceptable to both the EU and hardline Brexit supporters in her own deeply-divided Conservative party, but she insisted that a deal is achievable and that"now is the time to make it happen".
"I believe everybody around the table wants to get a deal. By working intensively and closely we can achieve that deal,"she told reporters as she arrived for the summit.
Ahead of the summit, European Council President Donald Tusk had urged May to offer new"concrete ideas on how to break the impasse".
Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite poured cold water on hopes of major developments on Wednesday, saying"today there will be no breakthrough".
"The main thing we would like to hear and see is (the clear) position of (the) UK -- what really they want. Today we do not know what they want. They do not know themselves what they want,"she said.
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18/10/2018
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