British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels on Wednesday for a crucial meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a bid to seek a breakthrough in the deadlocked post-Brexit trade talks, Downing Street said Tuesday.

File photo: Agencies

Johnson is due to sit down with Von der Leyen for dinner to continue discussions "on the future relationship between the UK and the EU," a spokesman from Downing Street said.

In response, Von der Leyen said: "I look forward to welcoming" the British prime minister.

Earlier Tuesday, Johnson said the post-Brexit trade talks between Britain and the European Union (EU) are "very difficult" at the moment.

"You've got to be optimistic, you've got to believe there's the power of sweet reason to get this thing over the line," the prime minister told Sky News. "But I've got to tell you it's looking very, very difficult at the moment."

Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Johnson said: "We will see where we get to in the course of the next two days, but I think the UK government's position is that we are willing to engage at any level, political or otherwise, we are willing to try anything."

"But there are just limits beyond which no sensible, independent government or country could go and people have got to understand that," he added.

In a bid to unlock the stalemate in post-Brexit trade talks, Johnson and Von der Leyen made a telephone call on Monday, the second one in 48 hours.

In a joint statement released Monday, they said that the conditions for finalizing a trade agreement "are not there due to the remaining significant differences on three critical issues: level playing field, governance and fisheries" between the two sides.

"As agreed on Saturday, we took stock today of the ongoing negotiations," the two leaders said in a statement following the phone call.

"We asked our chief negotiators and their teams to prepare an overview of the remaining differences to be discussed in a physical meeting in Brussels in the coming days," the statement added.

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 at the end of the year.

Failure to reach a free trade agreement means bilateral trade will fall back on World Trade Organization (WTO) rules in 2021.