An aide to indicted lawmaker Muneo Suzuki pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of rigging bids for a government-funded project on Russian-held Kunashiri island.

Akira Miyano, 54, said in his first trial session before the Tokyo District Court, "It is a fact that I introduced companies to each other, but I do not believe I did anything illicit."

Miyano is on trial with five others in the case.

Miyano and the others stand accused of obstructing the bidding process for construction of the House of Friendship on Kunashiri.

The others accused are Juichi Watanabe, 57, former president of Watanabe Kensetsu Kogyo, a construction company based in Nemuro, eastern Hokkaido; Masaru Inugai, 60, president of Inugai Komuten, another building firm in the nearby town of Nakashibetsu; Yoshiji Ishii, 53, an employee of Tokyo-based consulting firm Nippon Koei Co.; and Teruo Karube, 54, and Toru Kikuchi, 53, employees of the engineering firm JGC Corp.

Prosecutors say Suzuki pressed the Foreign Ministry, which was in charge of the facility's construction, to limit the bidding to firms based in Nemuro, and it complied.

Miyano is accused of introducing Watanabe Kensetsu Kogyo and Inugai Komuten to Nippon Koei, which had been commissioned by the ministry to place orders for the construction. This happened after Nippon Koei asked him to introduce construction companies based in Nemuro in accordance with the limit set by Suzuki, according to the indictment.

Miyano met Watanabe, Inugai and Nippon Koei officials at Suzuki's office in Kushiro and informed them of the commission's budgeted price ahead of the bidding slated for July 7, 1999, the prosecutors said.

The two firms then jointly placed a bid price that was higher than the budget price, thus making the bid invalid, prosecutors allege. They later signed the contract after negotiating the price, and JGC became a subcontractor for the project, they added.

Of the five, only Ishii denied the charges, claiming that while he leaked information concerning the bidding, the act did not obstruct the process itself.

Prosecutors in Thursday's trial said in a statement that the defendants told those concerned to "just mention the name of Suzuki's office" if other companies started asking questions, and that the lawmaker's influence was repeatedly used in the process.

Suzuki, who was deputy chief Cabinet secretary at the time, met with officials of the firms that won the contract who had come to thank him, prosecutors said, adding that the politician replied, "I heard about that, and I'm happy for you."

Suzuki, a House of Representatives member from Hokkaido, was arrested on June 19 on a separate charge of accepting a bribe from the lumber firm Yamarin.

He was charged on July 10 with accepting the 5 million yen on Aug. 4, 1998, when he had just been appointed deputy chief Cabinet secretary. He allegedly used his influence to seek favorable treatment for Yamarin from the Forestry Agency, after the firm was found to have engaged in illegal logging.

Investigative sources said that probes into other allegations concerning Suzuki, including suspicions that he had a hand in securing construction contracts for repairs to a pier on Kunashiri, are still ongoing.