TODAY is annual National Kissing Day, where people should be puckering up with their partners or even getting fresh with strangers. But finding a kiss on this most romantic of days is not as easy as it sounds, as JAMIE DIFFLEY found out when he took to the streets.

I MUST have looked strange, trudging the streets of East Lancashire armed with half a dozen red roses.

I know for a fact I sounded even stranger asking passers-by if they would care to swap one of the flowers for a kiss.

Today is National Kissing Day, when one of our most popular romantic pastimes is actively encouraged.

But approaching total strangers with such an offer was obviously not so appealing.

Many times my advances were spurned before they had even started.

I was as popular with the opposite sex as a Burnley fan in the Jack Walker Stand at Ewood Park singing "there's only one Paul Gascoigne."

It could, of course, be me -- but I put it down to the girls in East Lancashire being less than romantic.

How else would you explain someone rejecting tried and tested overtures such as "put your coat on love, you've trapped" or "here's 10p. Ring your mum and tell her you won't be home for tea".

I was just about on the point of consigning the roses to the bin, along with any hopes of stealing kisses, when I found salvation in the form of JENNI MOSS.

The 20-year-old nursery nurse from Blackburn was more than willing for me to plant a smacker on her -- and I duly did.

But, then again, they were nice roses.

LAURA BARRY, 17, of Rawtenstall, said: "Cheesy chat-up lines don't work for me. Boys have to be good looking and act normal. A slow kiss is the best."

From the male perspective, PAUL GREENWOOD, 18, of Darwen said: "I like girls to be themselves really.

"I don't go for chat-up lines, just for them to act how they are. A good kiss for me has to be tender."

EVE WOMACK, 22, of Blackburn, said: "Boys have to have a good bum that looks great in jeans.

"Boys have to make me laugh if they want to kiss me and then it would be a passionate kiss."

STUART STERLING, 21, who lives in Darwen, said: "I like someone I can get along with and who has a similar mental capacity.

"I go for someone with a good personality and the best kisser is someone with their tongue pierced!"

KAREN CUNNINGHAM, 29, of Accrington, said: "I look in their eyes. A boy has to have great big brown eyes and be good with chat-up lines.

"I like a kiss that uses tongues."

GEMMA FISK, 20, of Blackburn, revealed: "I like boys who can make you laugh and who don't need to use tacky chat-up lines, just be themselves. A good kiss has to be slow and sensuous."