UK to do everything to secure good trade deal with EU: Official

London, Dec 18 : The UK government "will be doing everything" to secure a good post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union (EU), British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said.

"Even if sometimes results are coming later than we might have wanted, I know we will be doing everything in order to secure a good free trade agreement in the interest of the whole UK," Xinhua news agency quoted Gove as saying to MPs in the House of Commons on Thursday.

Gove told MPs that they could be called back from their Christmas break to approve a deal if one is agreed between the two sides.The government would "request that the House returns in order to make sure that we can legislate effectively", he said.

On Thursday, the House of Commons broke for Christmas recess."Intensive talks" are continuing, with "both teams working day and night" to "go the extra mile" to seek an agreement, Gove said.

However, Gove reaffirmed that Britain would walk away if a trade deal was not "in the best interests of our country".Also on Thursday, EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier noted that "good progress" has been made in the trade negotiations."Good progress, but last stumbling blocks remain.

We will only sign a deal protecting EU interests and principles," he tweeted after updating European Parliament leaders on the negotiations.UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have previously said significant differences still remain between the two sides on three critical issues: level playing field, governance and fisheries.The latest reports suggested that fishing rights remains the last major sticking issue between the two sides.

Also on Thursday, a Downing Street spokesperson said that Johnson has underlined that the post-Brexit trade negotiations were now "in a serious situation"."The Prime Minister underlined that the negotiations were now in a serious situation.

Time was very short and it now looked very likely that an agreement would not be reached unless the EU position changed substantially," the spokesperson said in a statement.The UK was "making every effort to accommodate reasonable EU requests on the level playing field, but even though the gap had narrowed some fundamental areas remained difficult", said the statement.

"On fisheries he (Johnson) stressed that the UK could not accept a situation where it was the only sovereign country in the world not to be able to control access to its own waters for an extended period and to be faced with fisheries quotas which hugely disadvantaged its own industry."The EUs position in this area was simply not reasonable and if there was to be an agreement it needed to shift significantly," it added.

The Prime Minister repeated that little time was left and "if no agreement could be reached, the UK and the EU would part as friends, with the UK trading with the EU on Australian-style terms," said the statement.Australia trades with the EU largely on the World Trade Organization (WTO) terms.

"The leaders agreed to remain in close contact, said the statement.For her part, von der Leyen said on Twitter that the EU "welcomed substantial progress on many issues.

However, big differences remain to be bridged, in particular on fisheries.Bridging them will be very challenging"."Negotiations will continue tomorrow," she said.

The trade negotiations are at a crucial stage as time is running out for both sides to secure a deal before the Brexit transition period expires on December 31.Failure to reach a free trade agreement means bilateral trade will fall back on WTO rules in 2021.