Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and his predecessor Matteo Renzi, in December 2016 | Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images Paolo Gentiloni: Early elections should not disrupt Italy’s EU commitments Chances of early elections increase as major parties come closer to an agreement on electoral law.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said parliament should decide between a general election as early as September or wait until the end of the legislature at the beginning of next year to hold fresh elections.

"We should either vote immediately or in 2018 to avoid a dangerous overlapping of the national political agenda with the important deadlines we have in Brussels," Gentiloni was quoted as saying by Italian daily Corriere della Sera in a report published Saturday.

The prime minister's position contrasts with that of his predecessor, Matteo Renzi, who is pushing for elections at the end of October. The recently re-appointed head of the Democratic Party (PD) said the priority is to have a government elected by the people before the end of this year "in order to strengthen Italy's hand in negotiating budget and other delicate issues with Brussels."

Earlier this week, Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said it is harder "to make changes during political campaigns," suggesting early elections might disrupt important structural reforms and the clean-up of the country's banking sector.

Meanwhile, 5Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo said his party should support the modifications to the Italian electoral law and vote alongside Renzi, Silvio Berlusconi's center-right and the Northern League.

In January, the law had been declared partially illegitimate by Italy's highest court. Since then, most parties pledged they would find an agreement to review it. A vote on the new text is expected in the first half of June and if approved might pave the way for elections right after the summer.

Some 5Star Movement parliamentarians bashed the leader for siding with "political opponents" on something as tricky as the electoral reform.

Pushing back against the criticism Grillo said: "The M5S has been asking for elections since last year's December 4 referendum and we've asked to approve a new constitutional electoral law ever since ... we have now found an agreement with the other political forces which has been approved by our voters online and our spokespeople should respect that," according to Italian daily La Repubblica.