May meeting Macron for Brexit delay request

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is holding last-minute Brexit talks with the French President Emmanuel Macron, with the UK due to leave the EU in three days' time.

May will urge Macron to back her request to delay Brexit again until 30 June, having earlier met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

After the talks, Merkel said a delay that runs to the end of the year or the start of 2020 was a possibility, the BBC reported.

There is a summit on Wednesday when all EU states will vote on an extension.

Cross-party talks in Westminster aimed at breaking the impasse in Parliament finished, with both sides expressing hope there would be progress.

A draft EU document circulated to diplomats ahead of the emergency meeting of EU leaders proposes an extension but leaves the date blank.

European Council president Donald Tusk said there was "little reason to believe" that the ratification process of the withdrawal agreement could be completed by the end of June.

In a letter to EU leaders, he said at Wednesday's summit members should discuss "an alternative, longer extension" that will be flexible and "would last only as long as necessary and no longer than one year".

--IANS

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