Anti-mafia investigators arrested a man and issued warrants for four others they suspect of trying to win contracts to build a bridge between mainland Italy and Sicily on behalf of organised crime, police said yesterday.

The investigation strengthened fears that the Mafia - which is strong both in Sicily and the Calabria region on the toe of Italy - will try to get a hand in the controversial bridge project worth €4.6 billion.

"From the business of drugs to that of the bridge, it's just a very small step for the Mafia," said Claudio Fava, a European Parliament member in Italy's Democrats of the Left party.

The bridge, still in its early planning stages, will be almost three times the length of San Francisco's Golden Gate.

Aimed at boosting the south's poor economy, it would be the biggest single span suspension bridge in the world.

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