The EU will extend the October 31 Brexit deadline, but for how long is still up for debate, officials and diplomats said.

European Council President Donald Tusk has urged EU27 leaders to grant the U.K.'s formal request for an extension until January 31, with the possibility of leaving sooner if the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified by the U.K. and European parliaments.

Tusk and other EU leaders have also dismissed any consideration of a personal plea by U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who does not want Brussels to extend beyond October 31, apparently in a bid to pressure British MPs to push through his deal.

Instead, after a meeting of EU diplomats in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon, officials said there was general agreement to extend the date, and to do so by a written procedure that would not require national leaders to meet in person next week.

Diplomats said France was pushing for a shorter extension, in the hope of pushing the U.K. toward the exit after more than three years of dilly-dallying, but they said that no specific date had been raised during the meeting Wednesday. Germany indicated its support for Tusk's proposal.

Diplomats are scheduled to meet again on Friday, and Tusk was planning to continue his consultations with the 27 heads of state and government.

“The French have not specified any date,” an EU diplomat said. “They told the Coreper meeting [of EU ambassadors] that they were not opposed to a technical extension that is limited in time to allow the British parliament to finalize its ratification process.”

Tusk, so far, has sought to characterize the extension as a technical matter, though EU officials recognize any delay could create space for major political developments in Britain.

"The meeting was not meant to take any formal decisions and it didn't," a senior EU official said. "All agreed on the need for an extension to avoid a no-deal Brexit. The duration of an extension is still being discussed. There was a strong preference to use a written procedure to take the final decision."

Diplomats are scheduled to meet again on Friday, and Tusk was planning to continue his consultations with the 27 heads of state and government.

“We cannot decide for them,” one diplomat said after the meeting.

Several diplomats said they recognize and agree with the logic of Tusk's proposal to grant the extension request as submitted by Johnson on Saturday in accordance with a U.K. law known as the Benn Act.

That extension would create space for the U.K. to potentially hold a national election in December, or for Johnson to muster sufficient support in the U.K. parliament to win ratification. EU officials and diplomats said they are eager to avoid Brussels getting pulled into Britain's internal political dispute or being accused of taking sides for or against Johnson or anyone else.

Diplomats said there was also some tension over the speed with which Tusk publicly recommended granting a delay, shortly after the U.K. parliament voted against Johnson's legislative timetable for ratifying the bill on Tuesday.

Some EU countries chafed at what they viewed as an effort by Tusk to avoid debate or discussion about the extension. But the diplomats said the objections were a matter of principle regarding the EU's own internal functioning and not because leaders disagree with Tusk about the need for an extension, or because they prefer to hold another leaders' summit. (They don't.)

A diplomat said that ambassadors were unanimous "that an extension will be needed to overcome the deadlock in London and that decision should preferably be taken by written procedure."

Some EU leaders, notably French President Emmanuel Macron, have long said that they would only agree to an extension if there was a good reason, such as to allow a general election in the U.K. But confronted with the near certainty of Britain crashing out without a deal on November 1, those countries seem to be backing away from any ultimatum.

A second diplomat said EU leaders could not predict how an extension of the deadline would be used in London — whether it would simply give Johnson time to advocate leaving without a deal, or if it would allow his opponents in the Labour Party to simply continue delaying while refusing to allow a national election.

A third diplomat said that ambassadors agreed on the general "expectation that the U.K. will inform the EU about its next steps" — though such updates have not been particularly useful in recent days.

The same diplomat said that ambassadors were unanimous "that an extension will be needed to overcome the deadlock in London and that decision should preferably be taken by written procedure."

"Mood in the room points to a longer extension," the third diplomat added, signaling January 31 as the likely date.

But others cautioned that the discussion is far from complete.

In any event, it seems that British MPs eager for a decision in Brussels could spend their time further scrutinizing the roughly 600-page Withdrawal Agreement.

Maïa de La Baume contributed reporting.