Britain confident of EU deal this year - source

Britain is confident it can get a deal on its future ties with the European Union: London just needs Brussels to start treating the country as an independent negotiator, a source close to the British negotiating team said on Thursday. Sources in Brussels say the talks have reached an impasse, with both sides unable to find any compromise on three main areas - the so-called level playing field guarantees of fair competition, governance, and fisheries policy.

"I am quite positive ... I believe that in the core areas of this there is actually good understanding between negotiators," the source said. "If we can get over the EU's insistence on not treating us as a fully independent negotiator, I think we can make progress quite quickly. "I am confident we will get over that ... but probably a bit more noise has to happen before we get to that point."