Three-time ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi predicted that Italy will see a return to a right-wing coalition in government "in the not too distant future" as cracks begin to show in the current populist alliance.

The billionaire centre-right Forza Italia leader made his comments after hosting talks at his Rome palace home on Thursday with anti-migrant League party leader and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, and the leader of the far-right nationalist Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, Giorgia Meloni.

"My forecast is that in a not too distant future the centre right will return to government and the leadership of the country for the good fortune of Italy and the Italians, who will emerge quite soon from the inebriation they have shown for the 5-Star Movement," he said after the summit.

The three parties released a statement saying they would field single candidates representing their right-wing alliance in all upcoming 2019 regional elections, starting with Piedmont, Abruzzo, Basilicata and Sardinia.

And while Mr Salvini refused to speculate on how long the current governing coalition, formed last spring by Salvini's League party and the anti-establishment 5-star Movement, might last, Brothers of Italy (Fdl) leader Giorgia Meloni said that the League was "realising that it is difficult to find an agreement” with the more left-leaning 5-Star Movement.