The UK and the European Union will step up efforts to reach an agreement on the Northern Ireland Protocol before Christmas after negotiators failed to reach agreement once again.
After another week in the laboured talks on solving the issues thrown up by the Brexit border deal, David Frost said he and European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic had still not reached agreement.
The UK's Brexit minister said "intensive talks" would continue next week. He and his opposite number will double how often they meet "in the hope of making worthwhile progress towards agreed solutions before Christmas".
David Frost had previously said he did not want protocol negotiations to continue beyond December.
Reports have suggested that the UK government has watered down its demand that the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) must be removed from the protocol.
The stance had been seen as a block to any potential agreement, with Brussels refusing to countenance such a move.
But, in his statement on Friday, Mr Frost said there needed to be "movement on all the difficult issues created by the protocol", including on the Court of Justice.
The protocol was agreed as part of the Withdrawal Agreement in order to avoid a hard border in Ireland after the UK left the EU.
Both sides are trying to reach an agreement that would reduce customs paperwork and the number of checks required on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and ensure a continued free flow of medicines across the Irish Sea.
In a statement on social media after today's online meeting with the commission vice president, Mr Frost said: "We have made further limited progress on medicines but we have not reached agreement.
"I underlined the need for movement on all the difficult issues created by the protocol, including customs, agri-food rules, subsidy policy, VAT/excise, and governance including the Court of Justice.
"We will not find a durable solution that does not deal with all these problems. Intensive talks will continue this coming week.
"Maros Sefcovic and I will talk twice to steer the process, in the hope of making worthwhile progress towards agreed solutions before Christmas."
The European Commission vice-president said: "It's crunch time for medicines, with the EU Commission ready to amend EU legislation.
"We continue to work hard to turn our proposals into real benefits for all communities in NI. Next week, we'll speak on 15 and 17 December."
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The UK government is not insisting on solving all of the governance issues it has with the protocol right now, and wants to concentrate on addressing practical problems encountered by traders, according to a senior British official.
Described in a briefing to journalists as "an important shift by the UK", the source cautioned against expectations of a breakthrough before Christmas.
The British official said that if the UK ever had to use Article 16 – the so-called safeguard clause in the Northern Ireland Protocol – it would be done in a way that was "very limited, and very focused on practical issues", rather than trying to solve bigger issues around the role of the Court of Justice.
Because of this, the British would argue that there is no justification for the EU retaliating, and that suggestions of suspending the Trade and Co-operation Agreement were wholly unjustified and disproportionate.
Additional reporting by Sean Whelan
