Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday, March 20, the only viable new government would be a cross-party alliance between his center-right coalition and the center-left bloc led by Pier Luigi Bersani, according to Reuters.

Speaking as President Giorgio Napolitano began formal consultations with the parties to try to form a government after last month's election stalemate which gave no party a majority, Berlusconi said Italy needed a "government of national accord".

However Berlusconi, who is due to meet Napolitano on Thursday, said Bersani appeared to favor an alliance with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of former comic Beppe Grillo.

"We have declared ourselves open to this but Bersani and his supporters keep stubbornly paying court to Grillo and the 'Grillini' even though they only keep getting rebuffed," he told his own Italia 1 television.