Government confident of deal with Northern Ireland's DUP - Hammond

LONDON (Reuters) - British finance minister Philip Hammond said he was confident Prime Minister Theresa May will strike a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to gain support for her minority government. "I am confident that we will be able to come to an arrangement with them (the DUP) to support the government in the key areas of its programme," Hammond told BBC radio on Thursday. He said the ruling Conservative Party and the DUP were in agreement on many issues. "We don't agree on everything but on the big issues about the union, about the need to grow our economy and to spread the benefits of that growth across all corners of the United Kingdom, on the need to be strong on defence and counter-terrorism and all of these important areas we agree," he said. Earlier, DUP lawmaker Jeffrey Donaldson said there was a "very good" chance of a deal by next Thursday. May has been seeking a deal with the DUP since shortly after she failed to win a parliamentary majority in an election on June 8. (Reporting by William Schomberg; Writing by James Davey)