ROME: The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the far-right League are holding fresh negotiations over a coalition deal, so President Sergio Mattarella will delay naming a prime minister for 24 hours, the president's office said on Wednesday.
5-Star and the League are the two biggest groups in parliament and their leaders met on Wednesday to try to break a two-month deadlock since an inconclusive election on March 4.
To break the stalemate, Mattarella was expected to name a prime minister on Wednesday to head what he had called a "neutral" government.
But both 5-Star and the League have said they would not back such a government, depriving it of the chance to win a necessary confidence vote and raising the prospect of a repeat vote this year.
The election produced a hung parliament, with a conservative alliance led by the League winning most seats in parliament and 5-Star emerging as the biggest single party.
5-Star has repeatedly offered to form a government with the League but only on condition that it breaks from its ally Forza Italia, which is led by the scandal-plagued former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The League's leader Matteo Salvini has so far refused to do this in the name of loyalty to the alliance, but has been putting pressure on Berlusconi to voluntarily stand aside to allow him to form a government with 5-Star.
5-Star views the 81-year-old Berlusconi, who has a conviction for tax fraud and is on trial for allegedly bribing witnesses, as a symbol of political corruption.
Salvini and 5-Star's leader Luigi Di Maio have called for a snap election in July. If that happens, Berlusconi's Forza Italia party would haemorrhage more votes to the increasingly popular League, recent polls indicate.
Italian markets fell sharply on Tuesday as investors feared a new election would further benefit the League and 5-Star at the expense of mainstream groups.
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