UPDATE 1-EU needs Britain's decisions on Brexit to move forward - Weyand

The European Union would like clarity from Britain on how it sees post-Brexit trade relations if they are to move forward and avoid the most abrupt Brexit, the bloc's deputy chief negotiator Sabine Weyand said on Monday.

The House of Commons will vote on Tuesday on alternatives to Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan after voting it down two weeks ago in what Weyand called a "crushing defeat". "It is quite a challenge to see how you can construct from a diversity of the opposition a positive majority for the deal, and that is the task now for the UK government and the House of Commons," Weyand said.

"There will be no more negotiations on the Withdrawal Agreement," she said, noting that with just 60 days left, time was very tight to complete the ratification of the treaty. "Where we do have margin is on the political declaration ... We need decisions on the UK side on the direction of travel."

Weyand said the ratification of the EU-UK deal would build the trust necessary to build a new relationship. "A time-limit on the backstop defeats the purpose of the backstop because it means that once the backstop expires you stand there with no solution for this border," Weyand said of the most contentious part of the deal, an emergency fix to avoid a hard border in Ireland after Brexit.

But time was running out until March 29, Weyand said, stressing the risk of no-deal Brexit was high if Britain does not find a working majority to avert that. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Janet Lawrence)