LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Britain's talks to leave the European Union (all times local):

9:45 a.m.

The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, is rejecting the possibility of putting a time limit on the "backstop" option for the Irish border, saying it would defeat the purpose.

Barnier told Deutschlandfunk radio Thursday ahead of meetings in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the whole point of the backstop was to provide credible insurance for Ireland that there would be no hard border.

He also rejected the possibility of a deal on the border being negotiated by London directly with Dublin, saying through a translator: "It's not just about Ireland. Every item that crosses from Great Britain over the northern border into Ireland is also entering the common market, so it's not only about Ireland, it's about Germany, France, Poland — it's about the whole common market."

9:05 a.m.

The chief executive of Airbus has warned it could move its U.K. operations out of the country in the event there is a departure from the European Union without a deal.

Tom Enders issued a sharply worded statement Thursday, flatly warning that Brexit is threatening to destroy a century of development in the United Kingdom, a global leader in aviation. He declared that the country now stands at a precipice.

Enders urged the country not to "listen to the Brexiteers' madness which asserts that, because we have huge plants here, we will not move and we will always be here. They are wrong."

Airbus has more 14,000 employees in Britain with a further roughly 110,000 working in jobs supported by Airbus programs.