Unanimous support in EU for avoiding hard Brexit, Austria's Kurz says

Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz addresses the media in Vienna, Austria March 11, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

VIENNA (Reuters) - European Union heads of government unanimously support any decision to avoid a hard Brexit, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday.

Kurz said he expected there would be no majority in a vote in Britain's lower house of parliament on Wednesday for leaving the bloc without a withdrawal agreement, in which case a vote on deferring Brexit would probably take place on Thursday.

"If that all happens as outlined, then we support this course of action, of course," Kurz told a news conference. "I assume that among the (EU) heads of government there is the unanimous view that it makes sense to avoid a no-deal scenario, a so-called hard Brexit."

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Catherine Evans)