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In conclusions at a Brussels summit, the 27 other EU nations told the UK that it must produce "realistic and workable proposals" for what kind of post-Brexit relationship it wants.
"There is a great deal of work ahead and the most difficult tasks are still unresolved," European Council chief Donald Tusk told reporters. "This is the last call to lay the cards on the table."
Brexit was relegated to a brief discussion at an EU meeting.
With frustrated EU officials say divisions within the British government over Brexit are blocking progress on a divorce deal. British Prime Minister Theresa May insisted that the US negotiator invited UK officials to come back to Brussels on Monday for renewed talks.
In its statement, the EU also called for "intensified efforts" to get a deal, and said member states, "Institutions and businesses should" step up their work at all levels and for all outcomes. "
The block said it was concerned "that no substantial progress has been made on a backstop solution for Ireland / Northern Ireland," one of the thorniest issue in the divorce talks.
Great Britain has promised to maintain an invisible border, free of customs and other infrastructure, between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the UK's only land border with an EU member.
EU officials are impatient to hear detailed proposals from Britain for what can be achieved, given May's insistence that Britain will leave the EU's customs union.
EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said that "huge and serious divergences remain, in particular on Ireland and Northern Ireland."
The EU also said there was no agreement yet on Gibraltar, the British enclave at the tip of the Iberian Peninsula. Spain has asked for its return for centuries.
At the heart of the Brexit impbade is a split within the Conservative aftermath of the Brexit. The British leader is caught between pro-EU parliamentarians who want to retain close economic ties with Britain's biggest trading partner, and pro-Brexit lawmakers who want a clean break so Britain can strike new trade deals around the world.
British divisions look set to come to a head on July 6, when May gathers his cabinet at Checkers, the prime minister's country retreat, to try to unified plan for future trade and security with the EU.
Barnier said he was awaiting the position of the UK government plans to produce after the Cabinet meeting.
"I hope it will contain workable and realistic proposals," he said. "The time is very short. We want a deal and we are working for a deal. "
Britain, meanwhile, is frustrated by what it sees in the block's inflexible approach in negotiations.
EU leaders have warned, repeatedly, that Britain can not cherry-pick benefits of membership, such as access to the EU's single market of 500 million consumers, without accepting the responsibilities that come with being in the bloc, including allowing free movement of EU citizens to the UK.
Britain hopes to get tailor-made arrangements, both on trade and on security.
At Thursday's summit dinner, May warned her EU colleagues against shutting Britain out of key law-enforcement bodies after Brexit. She said the failure to strike a good divorce could not endanger European security.
As she left the summit early Friday, May said the UK currently has "a high level of cooperation with member states of the EU in a number of areas that are important for our citizens. '
The stalemate in talks has heightened fears in London and other European capitals of a "no-deal" Brexit, in which the UK crashes out of the bloc with no new framework for relations. They have set themselves up to reach a divorce agreement by October so that the national parliaments can ratify it before Britain leaves the block in March is slipping out of reach.
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said all involved should work hard to avoid a no-deal scenario.
"It is in nobody's interests at all to have a hard landing," she said.
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