Italian President Sergio Mattarella said Tuesday he will appoint a neutral, non-partisan figure to form a government to steer the country through the coronavirus pandemic after exploratory talks to recompose the previous government failed.

"I will soon confer a mandate to form a government that can face the serious emergencies (Italy faces) in a timely way," Mattarella said. "I call on all forces in parliament to give their confidence to a high-profile and non-partisan government."

Mattarella summoned former European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi to a meeting on Wednesday at noon after hearing that efforts to salvage the collapsed coalition of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had failed, according to the RAI public broadcaster. 

The president explained that Italy can't afford snap elections right now because it needs a fully functioning government that can fight the pandemic and also submit a national recovery plan to the European Union (EU) by April.

Draghi is widely credited with pulling the euro zone back from the brink of collapse in 2012, pledging to do "whatever it takes" to save the single European currency.

He has largely vanished from the public eye since his ECB term ended in October 2019, but his name emerged as a potential premier in recent weeks as political turmoil combined with the health and economic emergencies to form a perfect storm.

The first European country to be hit by the coronavirus, Italy has seen more than 89,000 deaths since its outbreak almost a year ago, the sixth-highest toll in the world.

Lockdowns aimed at curbing the contagion have devastated the economy and data released on Tuesday showed that Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 8.8 percent in 2020, its steepest annual drop since World War II.

Mattarella said one of the most important things the next administration had to do was to draw up rapidly plans for how to spend more than 200 billion euros ($243 billion) from a European Union fund designed to help overcome the economic slump.

No way

Draghi made no immediate comment on the presidential summons and it was not initially clear which parties in the deeply fractured parliament would support an administration he headed.

A senior member of the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement, the largest party in parliament and a key member of the last two coalition governments, said the group would never back a government led by Draghi.

"No way," he told Reuters, declining to be named.

By contrast, the Five-Star's main coalition partner, the center-left Democratic Party (PD), said it was ready to support the former central banker. Mattarella's initiative "has remedied the disaster," said PD leader Nicola Zingaretti.

Matteo Renzi, who triggered Conte's downfall last month by withdrawing his small party from the government in protest at its handling of the pandemic, also pledged support.

All eyes will be on the parties in the right-wing opposition bloc, which includes Matteo Salvini's eurosceptic League, the far-right Brothers of Italy and center-right Forza Italia.

While Forza Italia was widely expected to rally to Draghi's side, Brothers of Italy indicated that it would remain in opposition. This might mean that the league could make or break the mooted administration.

A Draghi government would reinforce Italy's international standing at a time when it has the presidency of the G20. But taking the job would carry risks for the 73-year-old economist.

The last time a technocrat took charge was in 2011, when another economist, Mario Monti, was entrusted with helping Italy out of a debt crisis. Parliamentarians soon turned on him when they deemed that his economic medicine was too pungent.

Mattarella statement followed a brief statement by House Speaker Roberto Fico, who said talks between the members of the previous government had failed.

The president on January 29 gave the House Speaker Roberto Fico an exploratory mandate to verify whether the same governing majority that existed before Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned on January 26 is still workable.

The preceding government coalition consisted of the center-left Democratic Party, the Five-Star Movement, and the centrist Italia Viva party led by Matteo Renzi, a former prime minister.

Renzi pulled his support from the government in late January in disagreement over its handling of the pandemic and of the multi-billion-euro EU funding for Italy, prompting a government crisis.

(With inputs from Xinhua and Reuters)