UK Brexit Secretary David Davis has said he is confident that an agreement on a transition phase with the European Union post-Brexit can be reached before next week's European Council meeting.
He told the House of Commons in London: "Our immediate goal is to agree a strictly time-limited implementation period by the March European Council next week."
"This is crucial to helping us build a bridge from where we are to where we want to be on our exit."
"We've also been working hard to codify the joint report into legal text. We are confident that both of these aims are in reach."
"Finally, the March European Council is expected to issue the negotiating guidelines to the commission to negotiate the future partnership."
"We are seeking to ensure that those guidelines are as broad and open as possible, to allow the most constructive negotiations to deliver the close relationship we are seeking and indeed we are aiming for."
Labour’s Brexit minister Jenny Chapman said ministers "did not quite appreciate the level of concern there is across the house" on how to resolve the issue of the Irish border.
She went on to challenge Mr Davis to visit the border.
Brexit Minister Suella Fernandes said the UK Government did not underestimate the issue and that fellow minister Robin Walker had visited the border.
She added: "The Secretary of State has also been to the border prior to his appointment to this position and is very much apprised of the sensitivities and the importance of this critical issue."
Mr Davis referred to his "previous looking at the border" around the time of the Good Friday Agreement to examine smuggling, which prompted Ms Chapman to note: "That's 20 years ago."
He added: "That's one occasion. This is an important issue. Indeed when Martin McGuinness was alive, the very last conversation I had with him was about doing exactly that and I will when the time arises."
"But the simple truth is that this border issue is resolvable if we have a free trade agreement and if we have a customs agreement, it is resolvable by technical means as well."
Mr Davis also dismissed suggestions the UK was destined to get a bad Brexit deal, given EU fears other member states may look to follow its example.
