<p>The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Tuesday said trade talks had started on the right foot as officials began a three-month sprint to settle future EU-UK relations.</p>.<p>Each side assembled about 100 officials at a Brussels conference centre and split into nine groups for intense and detailed negotiations on a wide range of topics, with trade the thorniest issue.</p>.<p>"The negotiations are going well," Barnier told reporters. "In the first phase, we are trying to see clearly, precisely, where our divergences, grey zones, convergences are."</p>.<p>Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost officially launched the negotiations on Monday with the first round set to end on Thursday.</p>.<p>The next series is to take place in London and thereafter alternate between the two capitals.</p>.<p>The talks began just over a month after Britain officially left the EU on January 31.</p>.<p>A transition period runs until December 31, during which Britain trades like an EU member with no tariffs or other barriers, but must abide by European rules.</p>.<p>Tensions have been rife in the weeks running up to the talks as both sides dig in to their positions, stoking fears that the talks could fail.</p>.<p>It is assumed that both sides will determine whether the talks are worth continuing at an EU-UK summit in June.</p>.<p>If there is no broad trade deal, economic pain will be felt on both sides -- but especially in Britain and Ireland, the EU member most dependent on trade with the UK.</p>
<p>The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Tuesday said trade talks had started on the right foot as officials began a three-month sprint to settle future EU-UK relations.</p>.<p>Each side assembled about 100 officials at a Brussels conference centre and split into nine groups for intense and detailed negotiations on a wide range of topics, with trade the thorniest issue.</p>.<p>"The negotiations are going well," Barnier told reporters. "In the first phase, we are trying to see clearly, precisely, where our divergences, grey zones, convergences are."</p>.<p>Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost officially launched the negotiations on Monday with the first round set to end on Thursday.</p>.<p>The next series is to take place in London and thereafter alternate between the two capitals.</p>.<p>The talks began just over a month after Britain officially left the EU on January 31.</p>.<p>A transition period runs until December 31, during which Britain trades like an EU member with no tariffs or other barriers, but must abide by European rules.</p>.<p>Tensions have been rife in the weeks running up to the talks as both sides dig in to their positions, stoking fears that the talks could fail.</p>.<p>It is assumed that both sides will determine whether the talks are worth continuing at an EU-UK summit in June.</p>.<p>If there is no broad trade deal, economic pain will be felt on both sides -- but especially in Britain and Ireland, the EU member most dependent on trade with the UK.</p>