'Cartel' fixed stadium bids

A construction firm has admitted that a "cartel" of firms fixed bidding for contracts to do work on stadiums for the 2014 World Cup, Brazilian authorities said on Monday.

State antitrust authorities said the probe was linked to the notorious Petrobras corruption scandal that has snared numerous Brazilian politicians.

"There is evidence that at least five public calls for tender linked to work on World Cup stadiums were subject to a cartel," the Administrative Economic Defense Council (CADE), a state antitrust body, said in a statement.