British PM May tries to convince skeptical Parliament a Brexit deal is still possible

British Prime Minister Theresa May urged the European Union on Monday not to allow a standoff over the so-called Irish backstop to derail the Brexit talks, saying she believed a deal was achievable.

In a statement to Parliament before she heads to Brussels for a crucial summit on Wednesday, May was upbeat about the chances of a deal with the EU, but repeated that she would not agree to anything that could split Britain.

Negotiations with the EU were paused on Sunday after the two sides failed to agree on how to deal with the United Kingdom's only land border with the union. The move comes less than six months before Britain leaves the bloc.

The problem of how to prevent the return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland has become the biggest hurdle to a deal on Brexit, Britain's biggest shift in policy for more than 40 years, and has increased the possibility of Britain leaving without a deal.

"It is frustrating that almost all the remaining points of disagreement are focused on how we manage a scenario which both sides hope should never come to pass and which, if it does, would only be temporary," May said.

"We cannot let this disagreement derail the prospects of a good deal and leave us with a 'no-deal' outcome that no one wants," she told a rowdy session of Parliament.

May tried to lead lawmakers, many of whom have criticized not only her Brexit plans but also her negotiating strategy, through the difficulties of what happened in Brussels after her Brexit minister raced there for talks on Sunday.

She said the EU had stuck to its proposal of keeping Northern Ireland in the EU customs union if a U.K.-wide plan is not ready to be put in place after a transitional arrangement runs out at the end of 2020.

But for May, who has said repeatedly that she will not countenance the breakup of the United Kingdom, any suggestion that Northern Ireland could be treated differently from the rest of Britain was unacceptable.

Britain has long said it wants an agreement on a future relationship with the EU, which London sees as including a common rule book for manufactured and agricultural products, something that would negate any need for a backstop plan for Ireland.

"As I have said many times, I could never accept that, no matter how unlikely such a scenario may be," she said.

"So it must be the case, first, that the backstop should not need to come into force."

In his official invitation letter for the summit, European Council President Donald Tusk said the 27 states remaining in the bloc after Britain leaves must be ready for a no-deal Brexit, a scenario he said was "more likely than ever before."

But Tusk seemed to indicate there was a commitment from both sides to strike a deal.

"As things stand today, it has proven to be more complicated than some may have expected," he said. "We should nevertheless remain hopeful and determined, as there is goodwill to continue these talks on both sides."

'Time for cool, calm heads to prevail'

May still faces a struggle to ease the concerns of not only the EU, but of her Conservative Party and her partners in Parliament, Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

Euroskeptics in the Conservative Party fear  a backstop could keep Britain indefinitely in the bloc's customs union, while the DUP says it can never accept anything that splits Northern Ireland from the rest of Britain, even going so far as to say it would withdraw the support in Parliament upon which May relies.

Given the way in which the EU has behaved and the corner they've put Theresa May into, there's no deal which I can see at present which will command a majority in the House of Commons- Sammy Wilson, DUP Brexit spokesperson

There has been little success in narrowing that gap, and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said any deal would now "take a bit more time than many people had hoped."

In Parliament, May told lawmakers an enhanced Canada-style deal supported by some Euroskeptics in her party was not on offer for the whole of the United Kingdom and that when Britain left the EU, it would be as a whole country.

A spokesperson for May held out hope, saying there were "a number of means of achieving what we want to achieve" on the backstop. He declined to give details and repeated Britain's view that any such arrangement would be time-limited.

"I need to be able to look the British people in the eye and say this backstop is a temporary solution," May told Parliament.

"This is the time for cool, calm heads to prevail. And it is the time for a clear-eyed focus on the few remaining but critical issues that are still to be agreed."

DUP leader Arlene Foster said Monday she hoped a "sensible" Brexit deal can be reached.

"There's no point in standing back and shouting at each other," said Foster about her meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar later in the day.

"I very much hope that we do get a deal ... We want to see a sensible Brexit, one that works for Northern Ireland, but also one that works for our colleagues and friends in the Republic of Ireland."

Sammy Wilson, the DUP's Brexit spokesperson, said it now believes a no-deal Brexit was almost inevitable, and described the talks in Brussels as turning into a "battle for the union."

"Given the way in which the EU has behaved and the corner they've put Theresa May into, there's no deal which I can see at present which will command a majority in the House of Commons," Wilson told the Belfast News Letter.

May's spokesperson said the British leader had spoken to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in recent days and was to have a call with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of Wednesday's summit.

May will meet with her cabinet on Tuesday.

After her speech to Parliament Monday she met with Nicola Sturgeon. Scotland's First Minister said in a statement after the meeting, "it remains clear that there remain fundamental issues to be resolved between the U.K. and the EU."