Le Week-End, a Mauritian newspaper, reported on Sunday that the two countries could announce a deal early this week after the UK agreed to the front-loading of payments. British officials said that while “a deal is there to be done, it’s not done yet”.

Mauritius is reportedly in “no rush” to secure a Chagos Island deal with the UK before Donald Trump takes office. Officials have told The Telegraph that the Mauritian government is pushing for more money,

The UK has agreed to the Mauritian request for a front-loading payment of the lease compensation of 90 million pounds ($110 million) per year as a sweetener to the Chagos islands deal, the Week-End newspaper reported on Sunday.

Mauritius is in “no rush” to secure a Chagos Islands deal with the UK and is still pushing for more money, officials have told The Telegraph.

The UK is considering front-loading its funding package for Mauritius as part of a sweetened deal ceding sovereignty of the Chagos islands, including a key UK-US military base, to the Indian Ocean nation.

The UK has offered to frontload payments to Mauritius in a bid to finalise the contentious Chagos Islands deal before Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20. Britain is offering to pay several years' worth of the £90million annual lease payments upfront for Diego Garcia,