Acting Democratic Party (PD) secretary Maurizio Martina on Tuesday said it would "deepen" exploratory talks on a coalition government with the populist Five-Star Movement in a bid end Italy's post-election stalemate.
"In a spirit of cooperation and without hiding the differences and problems between us, we are committed to deepening dialogue on a possible partnership," Martina said after meeting Italy's lower house of parliament speaker Roberto Fico.
"This will involve members of our leadership, who will be called upon to evaluate, discuss and decide the new direction to take," Martina said.
Italy's head of state Sergio Mattarella, who is struggling to end seven weeks of political deadlock after inconclusive 4 March national polls, on Monday asked Fico to hold talks with Five Star and the PD and report back to him on Thursday with his findings.
The PD is divided over a possible tie-up with Five-Star but most of its lawmakers oppose the idea and believe the party should go into opposition after losing the election. It had governed Italy since 2013.
Five-Star emerged as the biggest single party after last month's vote in which populist and rightwing parties made the strongest gains.
No party or bloc is close to a majority in the hung parliament that resulted from the ballot although the conservative alliance won the biggest share of votes and has the largest bloc of seats.
The PD came a poor third after Five-Star and the centre-right but has the numbers in parliament to play kingmaker in a coalition government.
