European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday he was fully focused on making Brexit negotiations a success and hoped for a deal in November.

The European Union's Brexit negotiators see a divorce deal with Britain as "very close", diplomatic sources have told Reuters, signalling that a compromise might be in the making on the most contentious issue of the future Irish border.

"Negotiations are not easy because we also have to be critical that we receive different signals from London," Juncker said, addressing the Austrian parliament.

"There is a polyphonic chorus at the level of the British cabinet and we try to arrange the pieces ... so that they become a melody," he said.

He said he hoped the European Council later this month would make "enough progress" that "we can see it through in November".

In the meantime, EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said he stressed the need for a binding deal to avoid a disruptive EU border for Northern Ireland when he met leading politicians from the British province on Friday.

He tweeted that he had met leaders or deputy leaders from four parties "to discuss the ongoing Brexit negotiations and the importance of a legally operative backstop for Northern Ireland".

Barnier is due to meet senior figures from the biggest party, the Democratic Unionists, on Tuesday. The DUP, allies of British Prime Minister Theresa May, strongly oppose Barnier's current proposals for a "backstop" that would apply EU rules to Northern Ireland but not to the British mainland in the event that London and Brussels fail to agree a post-Brexit free trade deal that would ensure minimal border checks in Ireland.

Britain and the EU are trying to push the divorce deal as well as an agreement on post-Brexit relations in time for two leaders' summits scheduled for October 17-18 and November 17-18.