Ireland calls for calm as EU rebuffs British Brexit demands

* UK, EU officials to meet in London

* EU says no 'blanket derogations' on food

* Ireland says 'dial down the rhetoric'

* Barnier says Brexit not the protocol to blame

By Conor Humphries and Jan Strupczewski

DUBLIN/BRUSSELS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Ireland on Thursdaycalled on the European Union and Britain to dial down therhetoric in a blame game over post-Brexit trade frictions afterBrussels rejected most of London's demands for easier trade withNorthern Ireland.

Britain has sought to extract concessions from the EU sincethe European Commission sought briefly last month to preventcoronavirus vaccines from moving across the open border betweenEU member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.

The Commission cited a shortfall of vaccines promised forthe EU, but reversed its move after an uproar, with NorthernIreland First Minister Arlene Foster calling it an "incredibleact of hostility."

At issue is the so-called Northern Ireland protocol thatseeks to preserve the open Irish border - a crucial component ofa 1998 peace agreement that largely ended conflict in NorthernIreland - while at the same time maintaining the integrity ofthe EU's single market.

The protocol was part of a deal reached when the United andfully exited the bloc's economic orbit on Dec. 31, having leftthe EU in January last year.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, speaking ahead of ameeting between British Cabinet Minister Michael Gove andEuropean Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic later onThursday, said some European states in particular "need to coolit".

"I think we need to dial down the rhetoric on both sideshere," Martin told RTE radio. "We just need to calm it, becauseultimately we want the United Kingdom aligning well with theEuropean Union."

Gove, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's top minister on Brexitaffairs, last week sent a letter to Sefcovic demanding somechanges to the Northern Ireland protocol, including an extensionto grace periods for the transport of some chilled food fromBritain to the province.

The letter said if no way forward was found, the UK would"consider using all instruments at its disposal."

But in a response overnight, Sefcovic rejected calls formore time, until Jan. 1, 2023, for British supermarkets andtheir suppliers to adjust to the new customs border on the IrishSea for goods shipped to the province, including chilled meat,parcels and medicines.

"As regards additional flexibilities concerning theapplication of Union law applicable in Northern Ireland withregard to meat products, export health certificates and parceland express services I would like to recall that blanketderogations ... cannot be agreed beyond what the Protocolforesees already," Sefcovic wrote.

The letter said the European Union was examining moreflexibility on steel but that on the issues of pet travelbetween Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of movements ofseed potatoes and other plants, any flexibility would entail theUnited Kingdom committing to align with EU rules.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said onThursday the problem was Britain's exit from the bloc, not theprotocol agreed between the two sides over their divorce.

"The difficulties on the island of Ireland are caused byBrexit, not by the protocol," he told a European Business Summitevent. "The protocol is the solution.(Reporting by Conor HumphriesEditing by Frances Kerry)