Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin arrives at a two-day face-to-face EU summit, in Brussels, Belgium. File/Reuters

British and European Union negotiators have the options in front of them to conclude a Brexit free-trade deal this week, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin was quoted as saying on Tuesday, expressing hope that they would succeed.

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“There is a landing zone for an agreement. It will require political will to conclude the deal and there are options to conclude the deal, and so on balance, I would be hopeful that it can be done at the end of this week,” Martin told the Irish Times in an interview.

“We are now really in the endgame if a deal is to be arrived at this week,” said Martin, who had also expressed hope at the beginning of last week that the outline of a trade deal would be agreed within days.

Reuters