The minister said on Thursday that negotiations are not expected to start until the "middle to end of this year" - pending a scoping study which was expected to be finished last year, but which European countries still cannot agree on.

Free trade agreements are meeting increasing opposition from countries within the union. Last October a long-anticipated deal with Canada was almost scuppered at the last minute when it was vetoed by the tiny regional government of Wallonia in south Belgium.

And noses were put out of joint when Australia slapped anti-dumping measures on Italian tinned tomatoes last year, which one Italian politician said had cast a "bit of a shadow" on the proposed free trade deal.

"Part of the challenge with the EU is it is effectively a federation, so there are challenges in terms of some of the internal processes that the EU has," Mr Ciobo said on Thursday, outside a meeting of Commonwealth trade ministers in London.

"Plus we are continuing to have some discussion between Australia and the EU to make sure we have a similar vision around what it is that we want to achieve."

Asked if any particular country was causing the holdup, he said his discussions were at the level of the European Commission.

"The internal mechanisms within the EU are a political process that the EU itself governs. My engagement isn't directly on a country-to-country basis??? If the Europeans tell me they need a little bit more time I'm happy to give them more time in order to achieve a good common solid starting point for negotiations."

He said it was "not at all" frustrating.

The prime minister announced the plan for a free trade agreement with the EU in November 2015, and in April last year Mr Ciobo told Fairfax they hoped to conclude the initial scoping study by the end of 2016, after which negotiations could begin.

However by September the timing had already slipped, with the minister saying he expected negotiations to begin "in the first half of 2017".

Mr Ciobo was in London for a meeting of Commonwealth trade ministers which some Whitehall officials reportedly dubbed "Empire 2.0".

Sources told the Times newspaper it would be used as a springboard for talks over free trade deals with African nations, as well as Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

But the 'Empire 2.0' tag wasn't appreciated by some.

The branding would "go down like a lead balloon" in India in particular, said that country's former minister of state Sashi Tharoor. The British Empire's legacy of plunder and exploitation meant it had "an awful lot of blood on its hands".

"Obviously those are not terms of trade that we recall with any happiness, and we certainly would like to clarify that those Empire terms are not on offer today," he said.

And Scottish National Party politician Humza Yousaf tweeted "my ancestors fought against British Empire in the Commonwealth - I suspect no-one wants a return to it. The Empire is dead, let it go folks."

UKIP spokesman Gawain Towler even theorised civil servants deliberately chose the phrase "to kill an interesting idea by framing the debate".

Mr Ciobo said he had seen the "media speculation" on this, but "there's absolutely nothing here that's about some kind of new empire or anything like that," he said.

"This is about bringing countries together at various stages of development to talk about the importance of having a strong commitment to liberalising trade and investment because that drives growth and it drives employment in every single country."

There has been a recent push for free, or freer movement between Commonwealth countries - last year a petition from the Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Organistion won 200,000 signatures, and now-foreign secretary Boris Johnson has previously called for a free labour mobility zone between the UK and Australia.

But Mr Ciobo said the idea had not been discussed and was not on the agenda at the meeting.

It was organised by the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, the peak body representing private sector businesses in the Commonwealth.

Mr Ciobo also had a private meeting with UK secretary of state for trade Liam Fox, discussing early work on a free trade deal with the UK post-Brexit.

He said they were progressing well.

"We are taking concrete strides forward," he said. "We need to scope out the level of ambition??? we are making a lot of progress and importantly there is goodwill on both sides."