UPDATE 2-UK's Hammond sees "opportunity" for Brexit vote next week

British lawmakers could be given a vote on a revised Brexit deal as soon as next week as negotiators in Brussels scramble to clinch last-minute changes to a divorce accord that would avoid a potentially disorderly exit from the European Union.

Diplomats in Brussels said the EU and Britain were moving towards a separate legal statement in which the bloc would again stress the temporary nature of the insurance policy for the Irish border, which has been a sticking point in the talks. But both sides played down the possibility of achieving the changes in time for a vote by British lawmakers next week.

Unless Prime Minister Theresa May can get a Brexit deal approved by the British parliament, then she will have to decide whether to delay Brexit or thrust the world's fifth largest economy into chaos by leaving without a deal on March 29. When asked what would happen next week, finance minister Philip Hammond said: "There may be an opportunity to bring a vote back to the House of Commons - there may be an opportunity, but that will depend on the progress that is made in the next few days."

EU diplomats later said the two sides were working on a "parallel declaration" or "interpretative instrument" for the border backstop. The backstop is an insurance policy designed to avoid border controls between EU member Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland after Brexit. Some UK lawmakers fear the backstop could trap the country in a permanent customs union with the EU.

"We are also looking at updating the declaration on future EU-UK ties after Brexit to give more prominence to the 'alternative arrangements' sought by Britain," said one EU diplomat who deals with Brexit. "But May won't get any firm wording before Feb. 28."

A British government official also played down the likelihood of a vote on the deal next week, saying it does not feel like Britain will have secured the changes it needs by then. May, once a reluctant supporter of EU membership who won the top job in the political chaos following the 2016 referendum, has promised to give lawmakers a chance to decide what to do about Brexit on Feb. 27 unless she can bring back a deal.

She pressed for "legally binding changes" at talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in on Wednesday. May wants to prevent the "backstop" policy on the Irish border tying Britain indefinitely to EU rules. She could have a further chance to lobby EU leaders at the weekend in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh during an EU-Arab League summit focused on migration, trade and security.

BACKSTOP British lawmakers voted 432-202 against her deal on Jan. 15, the worst defeat in modern British parliamentary history, largely due to the Irish backstop, which is intended to avoid new trouble in Northern Ireland.

With the clock ticking down to March 29, the date set in law for Brexit, Britain is ensnared in the deepest political crisis in half a century as it grapples with how, or even whether, to exit the European project that it joined in 1973. Juncker said he was pessimistic about the chances of Britain leaving the European Union with a deal and warned the failure to agree an orderly divorce would be economically devastating.

"If no deal were to happen, and I cannot exclude this, this would have terrible economic and social consequences in Britain and on the continent," he said. "But I am not very optimistic when it comes to this issue." Hammond said May's talks with Juncker, had gone well.

"They were good and constructive talks yesterday," Hammond said, adding that the two sides were talking about giving some guarantees that the Irish border backstop could only be a "temporary arrangement". "That is a word that hasn't been used before and I think that is significant," he said. "Both sides have acknowledged that the political declaration could be expanded, for example, to address concerns that have been expressed in some parts of the House of Commons about workers rights."

People close to the negotiations say discussions have been focusing on what May and Juncker in a joint statement called "appropriate legal assurance to both sides". Brexit minister Steve Barclay was due back in Brussels on Thursday, along with the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox.

Ever since Britain voted by 52-48 percent to leave the EU in a referendum in June 2016, the political class has been debating how to leave the European project forged by France and Germany after the devastation of World War Two. While the country is divided over EU membership, most agree it is at a crossroads and that its choices over Brexit will shape the prosperity of future generations.

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels, and Kylie MacLellan in London; Editing by Alison Williams)