Mubasher: The European Union (EU) and the UK have reached an agreement regarding the latter's exit from the former in a transitional near-two-year period.

Brexit has undergone hard negotiations and resulted in an agreement between both parties on many points save the Ireland border issue, in which London accepted a compromise keeping Northern Ireland under the EU law to eschew a dispute with Dublin.

“The transitional period is set to last from 29 March 2019 to December 2020, and is intended to smooth the path to a future permanent relationship,” the BBC reported.

Parties hope to close agreement in the spring, which will then be subject to ratification by EU member states and the UK Parliament next March.

"A lot of hard work has gone into setting out this timetable and details for the implementation period once we have actually left the EU next March to maintain a strong economic partnership with the union," British prime minister Theresa May commented.

By 4:55 pm GMT, the GBP rose 0.70% to $1.4039 against the US Dollar. The EUR/GBP pair fell 0.41% to GBP 0.8780.