Brussels — The European Union failed to finalize a massive free trade deal with Canada by a self-imposed deadline on Friday, with the tiny Belgian region that's holding up the pact saying its objections had not been sufficiently addressed.

Paul Magnette, the president of Wallonia, spent hours talking with EU officials and Canadian International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland to find a compromise by the end of a two-day summit in Brussels.

Talks will continue as the deal needs unanimity within the EU, and Belgium in turn needs unanimity among its regions. The disagreement has pitted Wallonia, a region of 3.5 million people that's smaller than New Jersey, against the entire EU and Canada, with populations of over 500 million and 35 million.

"Difficulties remain," Magnette said, adding that a key stumbling point was the politically sensitive issue of how multinational corporations could challenge states under the deal.

Magnette said the talks would continue, but suggested any deal might not be ready in time for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's visit to Brussels next Thursday.

"I plead that, in an amicable way, we jointly postpone the EU-Canada summit and that we give ourselves time," he said.

EU leaders warned that failure to clinch the deal with Canada could ruin the 28-nation bloc's credibility as a trade partner and make it more difficult to strike such agreements with other global allies like the United States and Japan.

As the leaders wrapped up a summit in Brussels on Friday afternoon, negotiations continued between officials from the EU Commission, regional leaders and Freeland in Wallonia's capital, Namur, 65 kilometers (40 miles) away.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country is the EU's single biggest economy, said she was optimistic a deal would emerge from the talks.

"We now have to deal with the national questions, and I don't find that so dramatic," she said. "Now we can only hope that the last disagreements in Belgium can be cleared up through further negotiations that are taking place at the moment."

Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP Christian Democrats, the biggest group in the European parliament, was less enthusiastic about local politics holding up such a significant international agreement.

"Europe cannot be held hostage because of internal political games in the Walloon regional," he said.

A similar free trade agreement between the EU and the United States is also being negotiated, but has met with far more opposition than the Canada pact. Progress on the U.S. deal is highly unlikely any time before next month's American election.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said after the EU summit that he hoped a deal would be reached "within the next few days."

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said he had worked through the night in an effort to broker a deal.

Juncker said the deal would be worth the effort. "It is the best one we ever concluded and if we will be unable to conclude a trade arrangement with Canada, I don't see how it would be possible to have trade agreements with other parts of this world," he said.

Proponents say the deal would yield billions in added trade through tariff cuts and other measures to lower barriers to commerce. At the same time, the EU says it will keep in place the region's strong safeguards on social, environmental and labor issues.

Wallonia wants more guarantees to protect its farmers and Europe's high labor, environmental and consumer standards. It also fears the agreement will allow huge multinationals — first from Canada, later from the United States, if a similar deal with Washington follows — to crush small Walloon enterprises and their way of life.

"The debate we have here is on what kind of globalization do we want?" Magnette told reporters. "The world will get globalized, that is just the way it is. It is an open world (and) that is a good thing. There is nothing worse than borders. But how will this globalization be done? With strong rules or weak rules? Will it protect public freedoms or will multinationals rule the law?"