EDINBURGH (Reuters) - The UK government will start a registration process to gauge the interest of European Union citizens in British residency as the country leaves the EU, The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The legal status and rights of EU nationals is one of the thornier issues within the morass of Britain’s exit from the bloc, which started with talks between negotiators in Brussels on Monday.

There are around three million EU citizens living in the UK and the newspaper said they would be invited to register their interest in documentation which would let them live and work in the country after 2019, when Brexit is due to happen.

No one at Britain’s interior ministry was available to comment.

Last week the Financial Times reported that London would offer citizens living in Britain the same rights that they have now as it leaves the EU.