(ANSA) - Rome, February 19 - Tension remained high Wednesday between Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and the leader of Italia Viva (IV), ex-premier Matteo Renzi, amid a major clash over a judiciary reform that has raised doubts about whether the government can stay afloat.

After a long day of meetings on the cabinet's agenda, Conte reportedly said that Renzi needs to speak out and say whether he wants to leave the government coalition, while highlighting the work carried out by the cabinet "with everybody" and the need to conquer "citizens' support", a well-informed source said late Tuesday.

Meanwhile Renzi has said that he does not want the government to collapse but rather to speed up on its agenda, denying reports that he was preparing to leave the ruling coalition and to provide external backing to a new government.

"The more we are attacked, the more we grow", he said, after reports that two new lawmakers were joining his IV party.

There has been speculation that Conte could try to form a new coalition government without Italia Viva after he and Renzi clashed over changes to the statute of limitations.

Conte has denied trying to form a 'new majority' while Renzi has said that if his party is "decisive for the ruling majority, then I say - 'listen to us too'.

Unlike the other parties supporting the government, IV is opposed to the "lodo Conte bis", the premier's proposed compromise on the statute of limitations after Renzi's party staunchly opposed Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede's reform that puts the statute of limitations on ice after a first-instance court ruling.

There is also tension between the Democratic Party (PD) and the 5-Star Movement (M5S) about amending or scrapping former interior minister and League leader Matteo Salvini's migrant and security decrees, the content of some of which the M5S supports and which are popular with voters.

