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LONDON—U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday held her first talks in London with European Council President Donald Tusk on Britain's planned exit from the European Union.

The Downing Street meeting is being cast as an opportunity for Mrs. May, who became prime minister in July following Britain's decision to leave the EU, and Mr. Tusk to establish a good working relationship.

It comes as Mrs. May is under mounting pressure at home and abroad for her to clarify her plans for Britain's exit from the EU, or Brexit.

In a message on his usual Twitter feed, Mr. Tusk said their goal was to establish the closest possible EU-U.K. relations but the ball was in the U.K.'s court to start negotiations and it was "in everybody's best interest to start ASAP."

In Parliament on Wednesday, Mrs. May faced repeated questions from lawmakers about what relationship she was seeking to forge with the EU once the U.K. had left, including whether she planned to remain in the single market. The prime minister said Britain would be seeking a new relationship that would involve control over immigration from the bloc coupled with the " right deal for trade in goods and services" but that she wouldn't "provide a running commentary on every twist and turn of the negotiation."

Mr. Tusk has been touring European capitals over the last two weeks ahead of a one-day meeting of all EU leaders, without the U.K., in Bratislava on September 16.

That meeting was originally aimed to coordinate the EU 27's common position and priorities for negotiations with the U.K. government about Britain's exit from the bloc. However with the exit talks unlikely to start for months, Mr. Tusk has said the main focus of the meeting will likely end up on other themes.

While the EU leaders are expected to reassert their post-referendum position that they won't start any kind of talks about the future relationship with the U.K. until Britain triggers Article 50, much of the discussion in Bratislava will likely focus on various EU initiatives aimed at bolstering the bloc's standing after June's vote.

Laurence Norman in Brussels contributed to this article.

Write to Nicholas Winning at nick.winning@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 08, 2016 05:45 ET (09:45 GMT)

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