Rishi Sunak has said "there's more work to do" on reaching a deal with the EU on Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Prime Minister stressed that "we have not got a deal yet" as expectations grow that a resolution on the contentious Irish Sea trading arrangements could be close.
He met with Stormont parties on Friday and is set to join European leaders in Germany this weekend for a security conference, with the protocol likely to feature in discussions on the margins.
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There is intensifying speculation that a deal could be announced as early as Tuesday.
The Prime Minister said he had "positive conversations" with the Stormont parties during his trip to Northern Ireland.
Speaking at Downing Street, he said: "Now it’s clear that we need to find solutions to the practical problems that the protocol is causing families and businesses in Northern Ireland, as well as address the democratic deficit.
“Now there’s more work to do. And that’s why my ministerial colleagues and I will continue talking to the European Union intensely to find solutions that protect the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland’s place in our single market.”
Asked if he was confident he would get there, Mr Sunak said: “As I said, there’s work to do. We have not got a deal yet."
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said it appeared "real progress" had been made in negotiations between London and Brussels, but more work was needed to get a deal "over the line".
For the past year the DUP has blocked Stormont power-sharing in protest against the protocol, which has angered unionists for creating new checks on trade into Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
The party has refused to resume devolved government until significant changes are made to the protocol.
Sir Jeffrey said: "Clearly this is a big moment, the next generation of Northern Ireland and its people requires us all, I think, collectively to use our best efforts – particularly the Prime Minister and the European Commission president – to get these issues resolved and to get to a place where the political institutions can be restored.
“The decisions that will be taken by the Prime Minister and by the European Commission will either consign Northern Ireland to more division or they will clear a path towards healing and to the restoration of the political institutions."
Mr Sunak’s meeting on Friday with the DUP at the Culloden Hotel outside Belfast lasted significantly longer than his engagements with Sinn Féin, Alliance, the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP.
The DUP also held talks with the Prime Minister on Thursday evening.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said "we're not there yet" on a deal but added that he was "quietly confident" there could be an agreement within a fortnight.
Sir Jeffrey said he was "not focused on timescales" but on "getting this right", and any deal had to meet his party's "seven tests".
He added: "We need to see an agreement that delivers that, we’re hopeful that can happen.
"But, in the end, we will wait to see the final text to make our judgments as to whether, in fact, that has been delivered."
After meeting with Mr Sunak, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said there were signs of "significant progress" on the protocol and that it was "very much game on".
She said that she believed Mr Sunak was in Northern Ireland to "listen to all perspectives".
"He accepts that the core of the protocol has worked and he has expressed the need to negotiate and to figure out how to resolve those parts that need a smoother application, or, as he put it, ‘the parts that weren’t working’," she said.
"There's no doubt, the protocol is a consequence of Brexit and the protocol is necessary, and the Prime Minister is in absolutely no doubt of that."
Several Stormont leaders described the talks as high on positively but low on detail.
Alliance leader Naomi Long said there was "some heavy lifting still to be done" to secure a deal.
UUP leader Doug Beattie said Mr Sunak told him "things are moving quicker than he probably anticipated them actually moving" but that the Prime Minister also said "there's a way to go yet".
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said Mr Sunak had given "scant" detail on the potential deal but the Foyle MP was "fairly optimistic that we're very close to an agreement".
In another apparent sign of progress, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly met European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic in Brussels, with both describing the exchange as "constructive".
Senior DUP and Eurosceptic Tory figures have warned that any deal must address the oversight role the protocol gives the European Court of Justice in Northern Ireland, as well as tackling trade barriers.
While it is believed a deal would reduce red tape on goods from Great Britain which remain in Northern Ireland, there is no expectation Brussels will end the application of EU law.
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