Senate Speaker Franco Marini said on Friday he could see a ray of hope in his talks with political parties on the possibility of forming a government to change Italy's electoral law.
Speaking on the second day of meetings with political leaders, Marini urged the Forza Italia party of former premier Silvio Berlusconi to heed calls from outside parliament for a bipartisan reform effort.
''It's important to continue this effort. I can see a chink of light,'' he said.
The speaker, who will meet Berlusconi on Monday, has made room in his schedule of political appointments to meet meet unions and employers' associations, who have called for political collaboration on a reform.
''I'm convinced that a party like Forza Italia cannot ignore all the people who have said yes'' to an interim government, Marini said.
So far Berlusconi, who is aiming to become premier for the third time, has been adamant in demanding snap elections. He says the electoral system, voted in by his government at the end of the last legislature, needs no overhaul.
The law is held by many analysts and left-wing politicians to be partly responsible for the instability of Romano Prodi's government.
Fearing that new elections under the same law will produce a government as precarious as Prodi's, President Giorgio Napolitano wants a new law in place before he dissolves parliament.
Marini, a 74-year-old former unionist, was given the job of seeking support for a cross-party reform on Wednesday and began his talks on Thursday.
''We're pushing ahead with our work which will not take long,'' he said, adding that he expected to close talks on Monday, at which point he will ''draw the conclusions''.
Most of the centre right has followed Berlusconi's line in refusing the idea of an interim government for any reason, seeing it as a ploy to keep the centre left in power.
The centre right, despite recent internal, tensions is well ahead in recent polls.
The only chink so far in the centre right has come from Pier Ferdinando Casini, leader of the centrist UDC party, who praised Marini on Friday for trying to smooth political tensions but said his mission was ''almost impossible''.
He said his party would come on board only if other parties did.
Marini, referring to his meeting with Berlusconi, said Monday would be ''decisive''.
He stressed that, whatever happened, there would be ''no short cuts, subterfuge nor trickery''.
