The meeting between Italy's populist Five-Star Movement, Luigi di Maio and far-right League party leader Matteo Salvini on Thursday was "positive" and made headway on the name of a prime minister for their proposed coalition government, Adnkronos learned from Five-Star sources.
During the meeting, Di Maio and Salvini reached "full" agreement on several unresolved issues in the 40-page common agenda hammered out in over a week of negotiations between the two sides, the sources said.
The European Union, deficit spending, a flat tax and immigration were the thorny issues in the joint programme of government, a Five Star official said before Di Maio and Salvini's meeting.
The two leaders "made progress" on the name of a premier for a Five-Star-League government and won't be meeting again in the afternoon, the sources said.
Di Maio earlier this week told members of Five-Star's executive that the issue of the premiership was the main stumbling-block in negotiations on a government, party sources told Adnkronos.
Both Di Maio, who leads Italy's largest party, and Savini, who heads the centre-right coalition - the largest parliamentary bloc - covet the role of premier.
Italy has been in political limbo since the inconclusive 4 March national election in which populist forces made strong gains but no party or alliance won an outright parliamentary majority.
Several previous rounds of talks between Italy's political leaders since the vote collapsed amid a mesh of seemingly irreconcilable demands.
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