WRAPUP 2-Britain narrows gap in last-gasp Brexit talks, but just hours left

Britain and the EU made headway in eleventh-hour talks to work out a Brexit deal in time for a leaders' summit this week, but with hours left to clinch a deal, it was still unclear whether London could avoid a delay to its Oct. 31 scheduled departure. The European Union's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier made clear at a meeting of ministers in Luxembourg that if an agreement wasn't reached on Tuesday, it would be too late to send anything for the bloc's leaders to approve at their meeting on Thursday and Friday.

However, as technical talks continued in Brussels, word emerged that gaps on an agreement had narrowed and the two sides were close to agreeing on a text. One EU official said an agreement was "close but not 100% certain", adding "there are still parts that need to be nailed down". Others were more cautious: one senior official said it was "way too premature" to conclude that a deal was at hand.

The main sticking point remains the border between EU-member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland. Three years after Britons voted in a referendum to quit the EU, negotiators are still wrestling with the question of how to prevent the border from becoming a backdoor into the bloc's single market without erecting controls which could undermine the 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of conflict.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar confirmed that the Brexit talks had made progress and were moving in the right direction. "The initial indications are that we are making progress, that negotiations are moving in the right direction," Varadkar told reporters in Dublin.

"But whether we will be able to conclude a revised withdrawal agreement, which after all is an international treaty, in time for the summit on Thursday, that's as of now unclear," Varadkar said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at a meeting last week that he was confident he could get a Brexit deal through the British parliament.

Asked if he would still say the gap between the United Kingdom and the EU was a significant one, Varadkar replied: "Yes but these discussions are happening in Brussels at the moment, I'm going to get a further briefing this evening so the situation may have changed even in the last few hours but the gap was still quite wide, particularly on the issue of customs." If London is unable to clinch a deal, an acrimonious divorce could follow that would hit trade and business, roil financial markets and potentially lead to the United Kingdom splitting.

Even if he wins the approval of Europe's big powers, Johnson must still sell any deal to a British parliament in which he has no majority. Johnson, a leading figure in the 2016 referendum who came to power as head of ruling Conservative Party in July, has pledged to take the country out of the bloc on Oct. 31 whether or not a withdrawal agreement has been reached.

But parliament has passed a law saying it cannot leave without an agreement and Johnson has not explained how he can get around that.

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