Arrested lawmaker Muneo Suzuki attempted to ensure that a favored contractor won bids on public works projects by excluding competitors, sources said Saturday.

They said Suzuki ordered a senior official of the Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau to prevent two Hokkaido contractors from winning certain state-funded projects. The contractors were competitors of Shimada Kensetsu, a construction firm based in Abashiri, Hokkaido.

The Abashiri firm allegedly bribed Suzuki with a total of 6 million yen between September 1997 and July 1998, when Suzuki headed the then Hokkaido Development Agency. He is believed to have shown the official a list of projects for which Shimada Kensetsu wanted to win contracts in the hope that the firm would get them.

Suzuki, 54, was served a fresh arrest warrant Thursday for allegedly accepting the bribes. The former Liberal Democratic Party member, first arrested June 19 on a bribery charge, left the ruling party in March following criticism over a series of scandals. He refuses to give up his Diet seat and denies any wrongdoing.

The sources said the two firms had worked on port projects, a factor deemed essential to qualify for new related public works projects.

They added that Suzuki allegedly told the bureau official to exclude the firms from projects that Shimada Kensetsu wanted to undertake.

The official then helped the firm win contracts for nine projects by conveying Suzuki's view to those in charge, according to the sources.

The two excluded firms refused to cooperate in the bid-rigging and saw the number of their contracted public works projects decline after Suzuki assumed the directorship of the agency in September 1997, the sources said.

In contrast, Shimada Kensetsu's sales in fiscal 1998 rose by 1.8 billion yen over the previous year to 4.3 billion yen.