(Adds background on UK-U.S. trade talks)
Aug 1 (Reuters) - British Trade Minister Liz Truss will meet
top U.S. officials in Washington next week to assess progress on
reaching a free trade agreement between the two countries, the
Financial Times reported https://on.ft.com/2XmcZ3I on Saturday.
Two sources told the newspaper Truss was expected to be in
Washington from this weekend while a third source told the FT
that she was expected to meet U.S. Trade Representative Robert
Lighthizer on Monday and Tuesday.
After leaving the European Union in January, Britain is keen
to stand alone and has started a series of trade negotiations
with other countries, with the United States seen as a priority.
Truss has previously said there was no timetable set for
Britain's trade talks with the United States, adding that UK
negotiators had made "very good progress" despite conducting
talks via video conference due to the coronavirus outbreak.
"We're not going to rush into a deal and there is no
deadline. We will be tough in pressing our interests," Truss
told a parliamentary committee in June.
The Financial Times reported late in July that the British
government had abandoned hopes of clinching a U.S. free trade
deal ahead of the American presidential election, with officials
blaming the pandemic for slow progress.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru
Editing by Paul Simao and Cynthia Osterman)