By Richard Cowan and David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -With less than two weeks to go before a March 14 deadline, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress appear to be nowhere close to a deal to avert a government shutdown that would throw Washington into deeper turmoil.

Federal funding dries up at the end of the day on March 14. Lawmakers acknowledge that passing full appropriations bills are unlikely given the time crunch, and they are preparing a funding extension known as a continuing resolution, referred to in Washington as a CR, in the hopes of buying more time.

The exchanges demonstrate the divides that remain as the nation approaches a March 14 deadline to avoid a partial federal government shutdown. Such deadlines have become commonplace in recent years with lawmakers almost always working out their differences in the end, or at least agreeing to a short-term funding extension.

As a funding deadline looms, the Democrats say Congress has ceded too much power to the president on spending and tariffs.

As relations between the US and Ukraine sour, Europe is scrambling to fill the gap. Russia's frozen assets may be a solution. Trump's 2016 Democratic rival issued a short but snappy slam of the president.

With exactly two weeks until the federal government shuts down, lawmakers are running out of time to craft a government spending package and are scrambling to produce a temporary funding extension. The stopgap,