Italy's President said yesterday he needed more time to decide whether to call a snap election or form an interim government after Prime Minister Romano Prodi's resignation last week.
Centre-right opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi has demanded an immediate election that polls say would return him to power, while Mr Prodi's centre-left favours a temporary government to enact electoral reforms.
After four days of consultations with 19 delegations of political leaders and former heads of state, President Giorgio Napolitano said he would take a "pause for reflection".
The President did not indicate when he may announce his decision but an aide said it would most likely be today.
"How can you think of putting on hold a country which needs a real government urgently, while we look for something on which there is not even a remote chance of finding a common platform today?" Mr Berlusconi told reporters after meeting the President.
Walter Veltroni, head of the Democratic Party which is the main rival on the left for Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia, told Mr Napolitano elections could wait until June, or even as late as spring 2009, after deep political and economic reforms.
"Elections now mean instability tomorrow," said Mr Veltroni.
After meeting the leaders of the biggest parties yesterday, the final day of crisis talks, Napolitano described the situation as "complicated and difficult".
One political source close to the talks said there was no clear majority in favour of quick parliamentary elections, meaning Mr Napolitano - a former communist - was more likely to try to appoint an interim administration.
Such a government could be led by Senate Speaker Franco Marini or Mr Prodi's outgoing interior minister, Giuliano Amato.
"At the moment the political parties asking for an early election don't add up to an absolute majority," said the source.
He listed Forza Italia, the National Alliance and Northern League on the right, and one communist party, as favouring a snap poll.
Mr Prodi's collapse was triggered by the defection of a small party that robbed him of his majority in the Senate, where he lost a confidence vote on Thursday. It came at a sensitive moment for the euro zone's third largest economy.
New data showed Italian business confidence had hit its lowest since end-2005 - when Mr Berlusconi was in power and the economy was stagnating - and a think-tank trimmed its growth forecast for 2008 to 0.9 per cent from 1.4 per cent.
Analysts say that if Mr Berlusconi has his way Italy would go to the polls under the same rules which many blame for making Mr Prodi's 20 months in office so difficult.