ROME, ITALY - NOVEMBER 29: The Vice President of the Council and Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini attends the television show 'L'aria che tira'.

Italy appears to have lurched further into another political crisis with gusto although Matteo Salvini, the leader of the increasingly powerful Lega party, is insisting that he has no intention of bringing down the government.

Tensions between Lega and its coalition partner, the Five Star Movement (M5S), have been brewing for months and on Monday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte threatened to step down if the two parties in his coalition government don't stop arguing.

At a press conference Monday, Conte urged the M5S and Lega party to set their differences aside and accelerate their reform program.

He also asked the two parties, which have experienced increasing tensions over policy since they formed a coalition in May 2018, to make a clear decision on the way forward.

"I therefore call on both political forces and, in particular, on their respective leaders, who also play a key role in the governance structure, to make a clear choice to tell me and tell us whether they intend to continue in the spirit of the (government) contract, drawn up with the aim of achieving its contents," he said in a live broadcast on Italian TV.

On Tuesday morning however, Matteo Salvini said he had no intention of bringing down the government and that he wanted it to accelerate its action, Reuters reported. He said he was ready to meet government partners whenever.

Italy's current political instability comes after months of rising tensions between the governing partners which formed a coalition government in May 2018 after an inconclusive election. Both Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, the head of the M5S, chose Conte as prime minister to lead Italy's 66th government since World War II.

The leaders have disagreed over various policies and election pledges, however, and while Lega was initially seen as the junior partner in the alliance, party leader Matteo Salvini has become more prominent and forthright. His party, which started as a secessionist northern party, has also seen wider regional election success in the last year and in the European Parliament elections in late May the party won 29 seats, compared to M5S' 14 seats.