ROME - Residents of the small Italian village of Bagnone were on Sunday trying to find out the identity of the weekend winner of a record lottery prize of almost 148 million euros.

Soon after the announcement that the winning ticket had been bought in a bar in the centre of the village, the name of one 47-year-old resident in particular kept cropping up.

The ANSA news agency quoted several villagers as saying they believed that he was the lucky recipient of the European record prize -- 147,807,299.08 euros (about 212 million dollars). He had spent just two euros on his ticket.

But the man concerned denied it was him. He went on to explain: "Yesterday evening I was showing off my ticket and saying for a joke that it was the winning one. That's how this whole story took off."

The owner of the bar also denied it was him.

"It's not the name that is going around. But I cannot say the name of the winner," said Vanni Simonetti. "I know it because the winner had entered just before me," he said, pointing out that his pre-filled ticket was number 431 while the winning ticket was numbered 430.

Sara Orti, who also works at the family-run bar, told AFP that at 10:00 pm on Saturday "someone who was very emotional had telephoned to say thank you".

It was a man who lives in the village, she said, adding that he had not yet come to the cafe.

The Tuscan village, whose population of 2,000 residents grows to around 3,000 in summer, partied late into the night on Saturday. Residents opened bottles of sparkling wine on the main square and were still in a festive mood Sunday.

At 8:00 am the square was much busier than usual as residents, visitors from neighboring villages and journalists came together. The identity of the mystery winner was the only topic of conversation.

"We are all happy here. It is a great moment for the village and there are lots of sightseers who have come to see the village and the bar. It's great for business," said Orti.

"There is a special atmosphere," said Simonetti. "People are calling from all over the place. Last night at 2:00 am a Canadian friend called me and she also wanted to know the name of the winner."

The record sum has fired the imagination of this village, whose residents clearly earn less than the national average.

"We're hoping the lucky winner will give us a helping hand to finish building work and will do something to put some life back into the village because we need a bit of work here," said one man in his 40s.

The centre-left mayor Gianfranco Lazzeroni also hoped that the village, which has an annual budget of around 2.3 million euros, would benefit from the SuperEnalotto jackpot.

"You don't expect to get such luck," he said, thinking about the projects he would like to build.

The lottery was also brought up by the priest at Sunday's Mass who called on the congregation to pray for the winner.

"I hope he will be able to look after this fortune well, and do good with it and use it to help others through generous acts," said Father Marco Giuntini.

The last time the thrice-weekly SuperEnalotto was paid out was on January 31, meaning the jackpot kept rolling over to the point where it became the world's second-largest after MegaMillions in the United States in March 2007.

The world record MegaMillions payout was the equivalent of 157.7 million euros, according to Agicos, another Italian gaming service.