MANCHESTER, England, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Any customs checks on the island of Ireland after Brexit do not need to involve new infrastructure, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday, describing the chances of reaching an exit deal with the European Union as "good".

Earlier Johnson denied a report by Irish broadcaster RTE that Britain had proposed border posts a few miles from the border between Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland.

"Those checks don't need to take place at the border ... they don’t need to involve new infrastructure," Johnson said in an interview with ITV.

"You must have checks of some kind. They can be checks between importer and exporter, the expediter and the recipient, there are ways of managing it that don’t involve physical infrastructure and aren’t laborious."

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Elizabeth Piper)