VALLETTA (Reuters) - Britain told EU peers it would stick to an end-March deadline to trigger its exit clause from the bloc, a senior EU diplomat said, after Britain’s top court ruled that London must seek parliamentary approval before invoking the so-called Article 50.

“The UK representative here made it very clear that he is going to prepare a short legislative bill to go to the parliament but he does not foresee any problems to stick to the deadline ... before the end of March,” Malta’s Deputy Prime Minister and EU minister Louis Grech, whose country hold the EU’s rotating presidency, told Reuters.

Grech was hosting a meeting on Tuesday of EU ministers and officials in Valletta, where Europe minister David Jones is representing Britain.