Home-made bombs were found and defused at the homes of two government members from Sardinia Tuesday.
The two undersecretaries share the same surname but are not related.
No message was sent with the rudimentary devices but police believe them to be the work of militants seeking to reduce or eliminate the role of the Italian government on the island.
One of the bombs was sent to Defence Undersecretary Emidio Casula.
He was recently tasked with assessing the impact of the Italian army's bases on Sardinia, which hosts more than half the country's military installations on the basis of surface area (24,000 hectares out of 40,000).
The other was sent to Economy Undersecretary Antonangelo Casula.
Both bombs were primed to go off but it was not clear whether the explosions would have coincided with the undersecretaries' movements.
They were similar in construction and both concealed in plastic bags of the type used for refuse.
Independence-seeking militants have sent a series of bombs to the island's authorities and police in recent years.
The last one, in March 2005, was accompanied by a letter seeking a 50% reduction in petrol and electricity charges on the island, a 50% cut in Sardinian MPs' salaries and the 'expulsion' of 'foreign' prison detainees, US military personnel and then premier Silvio Berlusconi, who has several villas on Sardinia.
Since that incident, a large US naval base has been closed by mutual consent.
