Britain's December deadline for EU reform difficult - chief EU negotiator

DUBLIN, Nov 25 (Reuters) - It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) will be difficult but not impossible for officials renegotiating Britain's EU membership to have a framework ready for susbtantial discussion at next month's European Union summit, the EU's chief negotiator said on Wednesday.

"No doubt it's not impossible but given the complexity of some of these issues and the relatively recent date on which the Prime Minister sent his (renegotiation) letter, it's not going to be easy," Jonathan Faull, Director General of the Task Force for Strategic Issues related to the UK referendum, told an Irish parliamentary committee meeting.

"We'll see where we are before the European Council meeting on December 17. If that's not possible we will go into next year and the next scheduled European Council is in February and that gives us a few more weeks to work on these very tricky issues." (Reporting by Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries; Editing by Louise Ireland)