COUNCILS and companies in East Lancashire were today trying to get their computer systems back up after being hit by the love letter virus.

The virus swept through computer systems worldwide yesterday and paralysed computer networks.

The virus, dubbed the Love Bug, has already cost UK businesses millions of pounds.

Blackburn with Darwen Council's e-mail system was struck by the virus late yesterday morning.

"We haven't been able to use it since, which is causing us a few problems," said a spokesman.

Lancashire County Council shut down its networking systems to prevent the virus spreading to its main computer system.

"We are now working with our software suppliers to ensure our servers are free from the virus." A Hyndburn Council spokesman said: "A message has been sent to all staff warning them not to open this suspect e-mail message."

Thousands of office workers opened the apparently romantic message sent to them by e-mail, rapidly spreading the virus which contained a destructive computer programme designed to delete files on the hard disk.

The message -- telling recipients: "Kindly check the attached love letter from me!" -- also quickly replicated itself by automatically sending copies to everybody listed in users' e-mail address books.

The sheer volume of e-mail traffic generated by the bug overloaded computer servers many of which either crashed or were shut down.

Among companies affected were phone giants BT, AT&T and Cable & Wireless, media organisations and banks such as Barclays.