The resume says Conte "stayed" at Paris Sorbonne University in 2000 and Cambridge University's Girton College in 2001 for scientific research. The resume also said he "perfected and updated his studies" during stays at New York University of at least a month during the summers of 2008-2012.

Cambridge declined to confirm any affiliation, citing privacy.

New York University says the Italian law professor tagged to be Italy's next prime minister had no official status at the university - despite an entry on his resume suggesting otherwise.

University spokeswoman Michelle Tsai said in a statement released on Tuesday that University of Florence law professor Guiseppe Conte had obtained permission to use NYU's law library during the period listed on his official resume.

The 12-page resume Conte submitted to the Italian parliament in 2013 said he "perfected and updated his studies" at NYU during the summers of 2008-2014.

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Tsai said in the statement: "While Mr. Conte had no official status at NYU, he was granted permission to conduct research in the NYU law library...and he invited an NYU law professor to serve on the board of an Italian law journal."

Conte's resume also says he taught a course in European contract and banking law at the University of Malta in the summer of 1997.

However, the University of Malta said it has no record of Conte "ever forming part of the resident academic staff," adding that that didn't exclude that "he may have been involved in lecturing duties during short courses organized in the summer of 1997" by a now-defunct foundation that worked with the university.

While Italian media reports were full of speculation about what appeared to be resume padding with overstated affiliations, analyst Wolfango Piccoli, co- founder of Teneo Intelligence, said he didn't expect it to have any impact on Italian President Sergio Mattarella's deliberations over whether to formally tap Conte to form a government. The timing for that step remained unclear.

"Embellishing resumes is sport in Italy," Piccoli said, adding that "only an academic would have a 12-page CV."

More significant would be for Conte to establish that he would have the independence to authoritatively lead a 5-Star-League government after both 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini agreed to step aside, and not just be an executor of the populists' wishes.

The 5-Stars began circulating Conte's name as a possible Cabinet minister several months ago, but he never participated in the elections or in the drafting of the program.

Paola Lucarelli, a professor of business law at the University of Florence who wrote a book with Conte, said he would bring to new government "his ability to mediate, a gift that maybe is not very common in politics."

During his university years in Rome, Conte had lived at the Holy See-affiliated Villa Nazareth, a residential college that provides low-income students with a place to live in the Italian capital while doing their studies.

Conte was precisely the type of motivated but economically disadvantaged Italians that Villa Nazareth sought out, said Nicholas Cafardi, a canon lawyer at Duquesne University which has an exchange program with Villa Nazareth.

"He's a 'pull-himself-up-by-his-bootstraps' type," Cafardi said. "He's gotten where he is today because of very, very hard work."

While at Villa Nazareth, Conte became friends with Silvestrini, the cardinal who runs the residence, and then went on to become one of his lawyers. Cafardi said he met Conte in 1992 when Silvestrini and Conte came to the US to set up a fundraising foundation, since disbanded, for Villa Nazareth.

"He's a great guy," Cafardi said. "I feel like he's walking in the lion's den with Salvini and Di Maio, but we'll see."