At the start of the election campaign, Mr Berlusconi trailed far behind his main centre-left opponent - PierluigiBersani, leader of the left-wing Democrats.
Any such move would lead to a broad alliance inevitably including the opposing PD (headed by PierluigiBersani) and the social conservatives of the UDC.
Another useful reformer has been PierluigiBersani, minister for industry in one of the centre-left governments, who drastically liberalised the hours that shops were able to stay open.
Napolitano said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon that during this week's talks he will first attempt to persuade leaders to support PierluigiBersani of the center-left Partito Democratico as prime minister.