Experts in Oxfordshire were today hoping they had exterminated a "Love Bug'' which brought companies and governments across the world to their knees.

Network Associates of Oxford and Abingdon-based Sophos began work on antidotes to the virus as soon as it arrived in Britain at 8.45am yesterday.

Graham Cluley, head of corporate communications at Sophos said many companies had been forced to switch off their e-mail systems which could have a huge impact on business.

And Network Associates' spokesman Billy Stent said: "Our engineers pulled out all the stops to find a cure.'' Around ten per cent of UK businesses were thought to be affected by the ''ILOVEYOU'' virus which spread itself by e-mail. Thought to have originated in the Phillippines, the true extent of the damage is not yet known but it could run into many millions of pounds.

Few could resist opening the apparently romantic message message which then replicated itself by automatically sending copies to everybody listed in users' e-mail address books.

Car parts and logistics firm Unipart managed to install virus-busting software to prevent the so-called bug doing any damage.

The firm, based at Cowley, which operates a massive e-mail network said it received an early warning and put out an alert to all the users on its system.

Spokeswoman Jane Mage said: "We put out a management brief and installed some extra anti-virus software to prevent us being affected."

The John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford, also got an early warning. A spokeswoman said: "They took very quick action and as far as I know we haven't had any damage, thanks to the prompt action of our IT department." Internet conference company RMR, of Eynsham, near Witney, had to close down its e-mail system until an anti-virus software "patch" was found.

Marketing director John Duffy said: "It hasn't affected our work as such, but once the first person got it, they alerted our IT people and they shut down our e-mail connections and some parts of our system until a patch was found.

"We felt that was the best way of preventing the virus being passed on. We haven't found any evidence of damage, but there is an outside chance that we may find some damage when we re-open parts of the system."

Thames Valley Police said they appeared to have escaped unscathed and Oxford City Council received three infected e-mails but managed to trap them before any damage was caused.