By Aubrey Allegretti, Political Reporter
The EU has given the "green light" to preparations for the second phase of Brexit talks, dealing with trade.
European Council president Donald Tusk announced on Twitter from a summit in Brussels: "Brexit conclusions adopted. Leaders green-light internal EU27 preparations for 2nd phase."
It came minutes before Theresa May gave a speech saying she is "ambitious and positive" about negotiations but that there is still "some way to go".
The Prime Minister claimed there were only "small issues" on citizens' rights left to resolve and insisted the key 'sufficient progress' motion needed to trigger phase-two talks was "within touching distance".
Despite Mr Tusk's announcement, the EU27 are expected to reject formally moving on to negotiations on Britain's future relationship with the bloc.
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