France denied the European Union's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier was about to be sidelined by EU leaders in a bid to break the deadlock in trade talks, as reported by British newspaper the Daily Telegraph. 

Twisting a famous British war slogan, European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune tweeted on Saturday: "Keep calm and support Michel Barnier." 

"No doubt that British humor the Telegraph is accustomed to: Obviously, full support to Michel Barnier and his mandate! #fakenews," Beaune added in a second tweet linking to the Telegraph story. 

The newspaper said on Friday Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, was to pave the way for heads of EU countries to intervene in the talks. 

The chances of Britain leaving the EU without a trade deal have risen sharply as negotiations have been threatened by London's insistence that it has full autonomy over its state aid plans, negotiators and diplomats have said.

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The UK's chief negotiator David Frost said on Saturday that Britain will not become "a client state" under the terms of any post-Brexit trade deal struck with the EU. 

Ahead of an eighth and final round of scheduled talks with the EU next week, Frost said Britain was "not going to compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws."  

"We are not going to be a client state," he told the Mail on Sunday in a rare newspaper interview, as the stalled negotiations with the bloc near their conclusion.  

"We are not going to accept provisions that give them control over our money or the way we can organize things here in the UK and that should not be controversial," Frost added.  

"That's what being an independent country is about, that's what the British people voted for and that's what will happen at the end of the year, come what may," he said. 

The United Kingdom formally left the EU on January 31 but it remains in a transition phase under which EU rules still apply until December 31, after which either a new trade regime comes into force or it will revert to rules set by the World Trade Organization. 

(With input from Reuters, AFP)