President Giorgio Napolitano held the third of four days of crisis talks with political leaders aimed at filling the power vacuum created when left-leaning Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned last week after just 20 months in office.
Napolitano could appoint an interim government if there were cross-party agreement, an option favoured by Prodi's weakened centre-left.
But his search for consensus has so far failed to sway Berlusconi's centre-right, which analysts say would benefit by elections sooner rather than later, while Prodi's collapse is still fresh in voters' minds.
Italian newspapers led on Monday with Berlusconi's threats of massive street protests if Napolitano failed to call a vote.
"We asked the president of the Republic to dissolve parliament and call early elections," said Roberto Maroni of the right-wing Northern League party, after talks with Napolitano.
Napolitano, an 82-year-old former communist, is known to favour revising electoral laws blamed for creating political instability before sending Italians back to the polls.
Italian media say he is seeking support for an interim government perhaps led by Senate president Franco Marini. But the deadlock leaves Napolitano little choice but to call elections, which a large number of Italians appear to favour.
A poll published over the weekend in Corriere della Sera newspaper showed 61 percent of Italians want an early election and only 33 percent prefer some form of transitional government.
Polls also showed the centre left would take 42.4 to 45 percent of the vote with Berlusconi's centre right on 54.5 to 57.6 percent.
"The winner (from the deadlock) is Silvio Berlusconi, the leader who for the last year-and-a-half has called for parliament to be dissolved," wrote columnist Sergio Romano in Monday's Corriere.
He said elections, while perhaps unappealing to Napolitano, would at least resolve the crisis quickly.
Italy's centre left, ranging from Catholics to communists, has been riven by deep policy divisions and personal rivalries, and their fear of facing an election soon is palpable.
While Prodi was in power, the nine-party coalition was mired in infighting and mutual sabotage, arguing about everything from foreign policy to gay rights, from economic reforms to abortion.
Prodi has said he is not willing to lead a new government. Walter Veltroni, Rome's popular mayor, is widely tipped as the next candidate for the centre left in an eventual election.
Picture: Alleanza Nazionale right party leader Gianfranco Fini arrives to speak to the press after consulting with Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano at the Quirinale palace in Rome.