The 27 European Union countries staying on together after Brexit authorised their negotiator Michel Barnier on Friday to go into another round of intense and secret negotiations with Britain in a bid to get a deal, two senior diplomatic sources said.
"It's a tunnel with a very small light at the end of it," one of the diplomats said, indicating there was not too much hope on the EU side that a divorce deal could be sealed before Britain is due to leave the EU on Oct. 31.
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