The board of directors at Italy's national highway authority Anas has given a mandate to its chairman to suspend all road work because of a cash shortage.
An Anas statement said chairman Vincenzo Pozzi may shut down all projects as early as next month.
Instrastructure Minister Antonio Di Pietro said there was nothing he could do because "you can't get blood from a stone", in reference to the state's depleted finances. A decision must be made on which public works projects are to be considered priorities and this decision must be based on available funds, Di Pietro said.
He added that he had told Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa that highway road work had to be "one of the priorities among the several the government must decide to allocate funds for".
