Talks on a deal to keep Britain in the EU will go down to the wire at a leaders summit next week after negotiators failed to reach a breakthrough on the key issues on Thursday, European sources said.

The main sticking points include Britain's demands for protection for countries that do not use the euro currency and the length of time it can limit welfare benefits for European Union migrant workers, they said.

A man set himself on fire in the early hours of Tuesday outside Kensington Palace, the central London home of Prince William and his wife Kate, and later died of his injuries, British police said.

Two fire extinguishers could be seen next to a police tent set up at the scene of the incident near the large windows of the palace's Orangery.

Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday fended off attacks from euroskeptics and a hostile press over proposed reforms to keep Britain in the EU that Brussels defended as a "fair" deal for all.

In a heated parliamentary debate, Cameron urged fellow MPs to stand united as he faced vitriol from senior members of his own Conservative Party and a vicious response from several newspapers to the plan.

European Union and British diplomats held "intensive" talks in Brussels on Monday in a race against time to seal a deal on changes to Britain's membership of the crisis-ridden bloc by the end of the day.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and EU President Donald Tusk failed to reach an agreement over dinner in London on Sunday and so decided on a 24-hour extension for further discussion in a bid to reach an accord by the self-imposed deadline.

Prime Minister David Cameron said progress had been made in Britain's renegotiation of relations with the EU, after talks in Brussels on Friday, but it was "not enough".

"We have made progress today; it's not enough," he told Sky News television after talks with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.

Around 20 schools in France and Britain were placed on bomb alert Thursday following another round of telephone threats, the second in a week.

Police were sent to secure five of the most prestigious schools in Paris after bomb threats were phoned in, and British police said they were probing threats at 14 schools in central England believed to be "false and malicious."

A fool, an idiot, a buffoon -- MPs lined up to attack Donald Trump for his comments on Muslims, during a parliamentary debate Monday on whether he should be banned from Britain.

The debate was triggered by a public petition which has attracted more than 575,000 signatures from people who want the Republican presidential hopeful kept out of the country over his comments.

Britain summoned the North Korean ambassador in London on Thursday, the Foreign Office said, after Pyongyang's latest nuclear test drew international condemnation.

"I summoned North Korea's Ambassador today to stress in the strongest terms the UK's condemnation of their nuclear test," Asia minister Hugo Swire said in a Foreign Office statement.

Investigations into the identity of an English-speaking man who featured in an Islamic State (IS) group video are focusing on a Briton, Siddhartha Dhar, the BBC reported Tuesday.

Dhar was born a Hindu and ran a business renting out bouncy castles in northeast London before converting to Islam and becoming radicalized, the broadcaster said.

The body of a kayaker who went missing during Storm Frank was recovered from a river on Thursday as Britain's battle with localized flooding stretched into the New Year.

The body of the man in his 50s was recovered from the River Findhorn in Moray, northeastern Scotland. He got into difficulties on the water around midday Wednesday.