British PM to hold talks with leaders in Northern Ireland

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Wednesday meet leaders in Northern Ireland to sell his plan to pull Britain out of the European Union with or without a deal.

He arrived in Belfast on Tuesday night amid warnings from Irish leaders that his vow to leave the EU, with or without a deal, risks breaking up the United Kingdom.

Johnson will hold talks with Northern Ireland's main political parties to discuss the restoration of the British province's power-sharing government, which collapsed in January 2017.

Ireland has a land border with the province that both sides want to keep free-flowing after Brexit, both for economic reasons and, more importantly, to maintain the delicate peace deal that brought an end to decades of violence between Irish nationalists and British loyalists.

The removal of checks on the border with Ireland was considered a key factor in reducing tensions. But after Brexit, that border will become part of the EU's external frontier and would legally require policing.

The agreement struck by Johnson's predecessor Theresa May proposed the so-called "backstop" solution, a mechanism designed to preserve the EU's single market and prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.

But many eurosceptic MPs believe it gives the EU too much control over Britain and rejected the deal three times.

Johnson told Ireland's prime minister, Leo Varadkar, on Tuesday that the "backstop" plan was unacceptable, putting him at odds with both Dublin and Brussels, which insists the deal is not open for renegotiation.

"If they really can't do it then clearly we have to get ready for a no-deal exit," Johnson said on a trip to Wales, adding: "It's up to the EU, this is their call."

Varadkar has said that Johnson's plan to renegotiate the deal by a deadline of October 31 was "totally not in the real world".