Italian centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani met his centre-right rival Silvio Berlusconi yesterday to discuss the election for the next President of the Republic, offering hope of a breakthrough in the deadlock left by elections in February.

“It was a good meeting but we’re at the beginning,” Enrico Letta, deputy leader of Bersani’s Democratic Party (PD), told reporters in Parliament.

He said the meeting had focused only on the issue of the next President, not on any possible deal to form a government, which has so far proved impossible for the deeply divided parties to secure more than 40 days after the election.

Letta said there would be further meetings in the next few days with Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) and other parties but said no names were discussed at yesterday’s meeting, intended to prepare the way for the start of the presidential election process on April 18.

It is unclear how far any accord over the presidential election will clear the way to a deal that would allow a government to take office, but the tone struck following the meeting was much more cordial than it has been in recent days.

“It was useful to get clarity on the criteria we need first to agree on a range of names, then on a person who can unite the country,” Letta said.

“In a moment of great division we feel a strong need to give a signal of unity to the country. That’s why we want to try to find unity around a name we can both support,” he said.

No clear favourite has emerged although several names have been floated including former Prime Ministers Romano Prodi and Giuliano Amato and former European Commissioner Emma Bonino.