British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was holding talks in Belfast Friday with local political parties as reports said a deal over the Northern Ireland Protocol could be reached imminently.

The protocol on post-Brexit trading rules, signed between London and Brussels keeps Northern Ireland in the European single market and customs union and stipulates checks on goods moving from the rest of the UK to Northern Ireland.

It has proved deeply unpopular with the UK-run province's unionist politicians, causing months of political deadlock.

London and Brussels have been negotiating for months to try to ease tensions over the trade arrangements.

Sunak stayed overnight on the outskirts of Belfast and was holding talks Friday with leaders of the five main Stormont parties along with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

He will be attempting to persuade the parties to back changes to the trading conditions agreed with Brussels.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "Whilst talks with the EU are ongoing, ministers continue to engage with relevant stakeholders to ensure any solution fixes the practical problems on the ground, meets our overarching objectives, and safeguards Northern Ireland's place in the UK's internal market."

She said the talks in Belfast are "part of this engagement process".

The Daily Telegraph reported multiple UK sources said that if Sunak manages to sell the deal to the DUP, he is expected to brief his government and announce it in parliament Tuesday.

Sunak is set to meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at a conference in Munich over the weekend "raising hopes of an imminent deal", the Guardian reported.

Foreign minister James Cleverly was visiting Brussels on Friday to meet the EU pointman on the issue, Maros Sefcovic.

Irish deputy premier Micheal Martin has said that he believes there is a "distance to go yet" on reaching a deal, however.

Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (the DUP) wants the deal overhauled or scrapped entirely, arguing it casts the province adrift from the rest of the UK and makes a united Ireland more likely.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson told the BBC Friday that the deal must remove the automatic application of EU law to Northern Ireland, saying "the province had been "abandoned to the EU".

The DUP walked out of Stormont in February 2022, mainly in protest at the protocol, causing political paralysis.

Britain this month said it would push back the deadline for Northern Ireland's parties to form a government for a year to 18 January 2024 but reserved the right to call an election at any time in the intervening period.