Britain's Brexit minister has said the British government will not accept two different customs regimes in the United Kingdom after Brexit, so the European Union needs to show less dry legalism in talks on Northern Ireland.
"What we're not going to do is see the United Kingdom carved up into two separate customs regimes ... that is just not on the table. Frankly, I think it's outrageous even to contemplate it," Dominic Raab said.
"We need to see a bit less dry legalism and dry dogmatism and a bit more of the flexibility that we have demonstrated in our white paper."
Earlier, he called on EU leaders to start to compromise in talks over Britain's exit from the EU, as time runs out for a deal to be done.
"If the EU want a deal, they need to get serious. And they need to do it now," Mr Raab told the Conservative party conference in Birmingham.
He said that the EU's approach to talks so far had seen "a starkly one-sided approach to negotiation" which had left "no room for serious compromise".
Mr Raab warned the EU against trying to bully the UK into signing a divorce deal that would undermine the unity of the country.
"If the only offer from the EU threatens the integrity of our union then we will be left with no choice but to leave with no deal," he told delegates.
"What is unthinkable is that this government, or any British government, could be bullied by the threat of some kind of economic embargo, into signing a one-sided deal against our country's interests.
"I find it hard to believe that they would, for narrow political ends, seek to punish Britain in such a crass and counterproductive way."
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Meanwhile, Britain's finance minister said his government would prove that the EU was wrong to dismiss the UK's plans for Brexit as unworkable.
"Mr Tusk says it won't work," Philip Hammond said, referring to European Council President Donald Tusk.
"But that's what people said about the light bulb in 1878. Our job is to prove him wrong," he told the conference.
Earlier, Mr Hammond said the European Union was in the mood to do a divorce deal, though he said uncertainty over Brexit had already hit the UK's economy.
He said: "The mood is undoubtedly that people want to do a deal with the UK.
"Clearly there has been a hit to the economy through the uncertainty that the Brexit process has caused.
"Many businesses are sitting on their hands frankly waiting to see what the out turn of this negotiation is before confirming their investment plans.
"I believe when the Prime Minister [Theresa May] lands this deal and brings it back there will actually be a boost to the economy."
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He also said that the UK has the fiscal capacity to cope with leaving the EU without having first secured a deal.
When asked about health spending, Mr Hammond said that people would have to accept that if they wanted an expanding health service they would have to pay a little more tax.
Mrs May told the BBC yesterday that she wanted to hear more detail about the EU objections.
"My mood is to listen to what the EU have to say about their concerns and to sit down and talk them through with them," she said.
Hunt under fire over 'Soviet' remarks
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has been criticised for comparing the EU to the Soviet Union.
In his keynote speech in Birmingham, Mr Hunt accused Brussels of seeking to "punish" Britain for wanting to leave the EU and compared it to the USSR trying to stop its citizens leaving.
The comment was denounced as "unworthy of a British Foreign Secretary" by the former head of the UK's diplomatic service, Lord Ricketts, while his successor as the Foreign Office's Permanent Secretary, Simon Fraser, described it as a "shocking failure of judgment".
German Europe minister Michael Roth told the foreign secretary: "Sorry, Jeremy Hunt, the EU is no prison!"
And a European Commission spokesman said: "I would say, respectfully, that we would all benefit, and in particular foreign affairs ministers, from opening a history book from time to time. That's the only comment I have."
Meanwhile, Latvia's ambassador to the UK retorted that the EU had brought her country "prosperity, equality, growth, respect" after decades in which the Soviet Union ruined the lives of its people.
Estonia's ambassador in London, Tiina Intelmann, described Mr Hunt's comments as "insulting" to those who lived under Soviet domination before the collapse of the communist regime in 1991.
In his speech yesterday, Mr Hunt recalled a visit to Latvia, during which he observed how the Baltic state had developed into "a modern democracy, part of both NATO and the EU" after breaking free of the Soviet Union.
He asked: "What happened to the confidence and ideals of the European dream? The EU was set up to protect freedom. It was the Soviet Union that stopped people leaving.
"The lesson from history is clear: if you turn the EU club into a prison, the desire to get out won't diminish, it will grow, and we won't be the only prisoner that will want to escape."
Additional Reporting: PA
