Rome - Italy's main opposition centre-left Democratic Party was reeling Wednesday following the arrest of several prominent local politicians linked to alleged cases of corruption.

The Corriere della Sera daily reported that police in Naples served house arrest orders to Ferdinando Di Mezza and Felice Laudadio, two councillors in the city's centre-left local government. They are respectively responsible for urban heritage and housing in the southern city's municipality.

The orders stem from a probe into the awarding of a 400 million euro (548 million dollars) maintenance and catering contract to a local firm, Global Services.

A local businessman, Alfredo Romeo, was taken into custody in connection with the probe, while house arrest orders were also served to 10 other people, including two former city councillors, also members of the Democratic Party.

The suspects face charges including contract tender fraud and corruption, the daily La Repubblica reported, citing prosecutors.

Two Italian members of parliament - Renzo Lusetti of the Democratic Party and Italo Bocchino of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative People of Freedom party - have also been placed under investigation in relation to the case, La Repubblica said.

But the fallout has mostly shaken the Democratic Party, which was still digesting the kickback-related arrest Tuesday of another of its members, Pescara Mayor Luciano D'Alfonso. That came a day after the centre-left lost in an election the central Abrruzzo region - where Pescara is situated - to Berlusconi's conservatives.

Also on Tuesday, a Democratic Party parliamentarian from Basilicata, Salvatore Margiotta, was placed under house arrest in connection with an alleged scam related to extraction of oil in the southern Italian region. French-based Total oil company's Italian branch CEO, Lionel Levha, was taken into custody for questioning in relation to the case.

Since its launch in late 2007, following a merger between former Communists and left-wing Catholics, the Democratic Party has presented itself as the new "participatory" force of change in Italian politics, even holding US-style primaries to choose as its leader the then-popular Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni.

However, in April, the party lost the general election to the Berlusconi-led conservatives. Since then, it has risked being upstaged by its smaller, but more vocal, centre-left ally, the Italy of Values Party, which is led by the former anti-corruption magistrate Antonio Di Pietro.

"I feel the need and responsibility for not having done more to show clearly how the Democratic Party can represent something new," Veltroni said commenting on the current scandals.

The party is expected to hold a summit on Friday to discuss how to handle the alleged corruption in its ranks, news reports said. (dpa)