By Elizabeth Piper and Jan Strupczewski
GOTHENBURG, Sweden (Reuters) - "There is more work to be done" to unlock Brexit talks, British Prime Minister Theresa May was told on Friday, after she tried to reassure the European Union that Britain will honor its commitments in the divorce bill.
May met leaders on the sidelines of an EU summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, to try to break the deadlock over the divorce settlement, suggesting she would increase her initial offer of about 20 billion euros made two months ago.
But without any plans to detail which financial commitments Britain was planning to cover, the conclusion with European Council President Donald Tusk, who coordinates Brexit for the bloc's 27 leaders, was that further steps were needed.
Under pressure at home from lawmakers in her own party who are concerned she is preparing for Britain to walk away with no deal and from EU officials to increase her opening bid, May also faces a growing row with neighbor and EU member Ireland.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said Dublin was not ready to allow the talks to move onto a discussion of future trade next month, something London desperately wants so it can offer some certainty to nervy businesses.
"Prime Minister May and President Tusk agreed that there is more work to be done and discussed how to take further steps forward together in advance of the European Council in December," a spokesman for the British leader said.
"In positive discussions, the two leaders spoke about the progress which had been made so far in the negotiations on citizens' rights, Northern Ireland and the financial settlement," he said in a statement.
May also met French President Emmanuel Macron and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on the sidelines of the summit, trying to reassure them that Britain would meet its commitments made while a member of the EU.
"I was clear in my speech in Florence that we will honor our commitments," she said, referring to a speech in Italy two months ago when she last sought to re-set the talks.
"I've set out a vision for that economic partnership. I look forward to the European Union responding positively to that so we can move forward together," she told reporters.
WHICH COMMITMENTS?
May has long said Britain will "honor its commitments" but EU officials are urging the prime minister to detail which ones, and, if not demanding a total sum, to at least give them an idea of the shape of her proposed settlement.
But May, weakened after losing her Conservative Party's majority at a June election she did not need to call, has little room for maneuver. Some of her team of ministers are pressing her to hold off from naming a figure, seeing it as one of the few levers Britain has to press for better trade deal.
Tusk was expected to have reminded May, according to an EU source, that "time is short" to deliver the kind of progress needed for EU officials to give the green light at the mid-December summit to opening talks on their future relationship.
The bloc's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said he needs to hear more from Britain on three key divorce conditions, including the financial settlement, by the start of next month.
Britain's Brexit minister David Davis, who addressed German businesses in Berlin on Thursday as part of London's wider efforts to unlock the talks, said on Friday it was clear many EU leaders wanted to move the talks forward.
"Of course they are saying that (more money is needed before progress) but the other thing that is also clear is that many of them do want to move on. It's very important to them," Davis told BBC radio.
A day earlier, he said Britain was ready to go "over and above" what it owed to the EU budget until 2020, but pressed on how and when the government would try to narrow the gap between its offer and the EU's demands, he said: "Wait for another few weeks before I answer that."
In Dublin, British foreign minister Boris Johnson tried to ease concerns on another front by saying no one wanted a return to a hard border with EU member Ireland, which some fear could usher in a return of the Troubles, three decades of violence between Irish nationalists and British unionists.
But while both he and Ireland's Coveney struck an amicable tone at a news conference, they remained far apart.
Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar was withering in his criticism. "Sometimes it doesn't seem like they've thought all this through," he said in Gothenburg.
"If we have to wait until the New Year, if we have to wait for further concessions, so be it."