Rajoy calls for a 'swift' Brexit where rights of Spaniards in UK and Brits in Spain are protected

He says he hopes the UK and Spain can continue to enjoy their existing close relationship.

Rajoy and Mrs May spoke for 20 minutes at the Grand Master Palace in Valletta, Malta where they attended an extraordinary summit of European Union leaders, but at which no reporters or photographers were allowed in at the express request of the British government.

According to Spanish diplomatic sources, the two leaders did not mention the issue of Gibraltar when they discussed Brexit, nor any decisions they may have made concerning US president Donald Trump following his meeting with May in Washington DC.

They spoke purely about the UK's departure from the EU and May reportedly reiterated to Rajoy that she would trigger Article 50 before March was out.

But she did not confirm whether or not it would coincide with the Council of Europe meeeting due to be held in Brussels on March 9.

Rajoy, who approached May as soon as he arrived at the Valletta summit venue at 09.10 today (Friday), pleaded with the British premier that he wanted the European situation to remain the same, for general areas of negotiation to be established as soon as possible and for agreed actions to be carried out by the EU's Brexit leader Michel Barnier.

Rajoy also urged May to ensure the negotiations were dealt with swiftly, via 'constructive and positive approximations', and with the priority issue being not to harm Spaniards living in Britain or Brits living in Spain.

The Spanish leader guaranteed that his country's approach to the Brexit move would 'at all times' be 'in line with that of the remaining EU member States', and stressed there would be no bilateral agreements between Spain and Britain.

Rajoy says he would not support any separate negotiation of the four 'pillars of freedom' the EU is based upon, those of unrestricted movement of goods, services, capital and people.

The Spanish president then joined the rest of the EU-27 leaders at the summit, where Mrs May was not expected to join – although she was due to represent the 28^th European nation for part of the meeting, including the working lunch with other EU leaders.

Rajoy, who is a keen runner, grabbed a few minutes for a power-walk along the Valletta seafront and uploaded a photograph of himself doing so on his Twitter account.