HOME Secretary David Blunkett today banned more asylum seekers from being sent to Blackburn and Darwen after blundering officials sent almost 100 too many.

His move comes little more than a month after council bosses in Blackburn with Darwen claimed that they had 796 asylum seekers in the borough, 96 more than the accepted limit agreed with the Home Office.

Mr Blunkett's pledge to stop sending foreigners to the two towns until the number falls back below the agreed limit came in a letter to local MPs Janet Anderson and Jack Straw.

He blamed the blunder on a "breakdown of communication'' within the National Asylum Support Service and between it and the council.

He said NASS officials and the council could now draw up a "sensible solution'' to the problem.

Mr Blunkett said that the area should receive no more than one asylum seeker for every 200 of the resident population as part of a plan to ensure that local authorities did not become overwhelmed.

He said NASS made no secret of this assumption but he discovered that the officials working on the dispersal were "not aware that any letters were sent to local authorities stating categorically that any cluster limits had been established."

The issue was raised with the MPs by Coun Maureen Bateson, the council's executive member for citizens rights.

She acted amid concern over plans, which have since been scrapped, for a private firm to convert the old Witton Bank Home for the Elderly in Blackburn into a 30-bed asylum seeker centre.

The funding allocated to the council for providing services to the asylum seekers is based on 700 people. Mrs Anderson, Darwen and Rossendale MP, said: "It was clearly wrong that the borough should receive more asylum seekers than it was agreed it could take. It certainly could not take any more.

"I now look forward to action to deal with the excess numbers of asylum seekers and the financial and other problems this has caused.

"I shall continue to monitor the Home Office and NASS to ensure a fair solution is concluded which does not leave the council and council tax payers out of pocket.''

Council leader Bill Taylor said: "As a council in a civil and peaceful nation, we accept our responsibility to accommodate asylum seekers and share the burden of responsibility that this entails.

"But we must ensure that the burden of responsibility is shared equally and this is what will now happen."

Lib Dem leader Paul Browne said: "I think it is plain to see we can't trust the Home Office when it comes to getting the figures right.

"I am sure there are more than even the 700-plus NASS admits to.

"I am pleased the Home Office has acted, but they don't fill me with confidence."

Conservative leader Colin Rigby also questioned the numbers.

He said he had heard from various organisations in the town that the asylum seeker level was nearer 1,500, a claim denied by the council.

When Mr Straw, then Home Secretary, launched the dispersal system in 2000, Blackburn with Darwen Council was promised an extra £4.5million between 2000 and 2005 to help provide services for the 700 places, meaning there would be no burden on tax payers.

Council statistics show Blackburn has 240 asylum seekers from Iraq, the majority of who are Marsh Arabs who have been persecuted by Saddam Hussain.

A further 87 are from Iran, 82 from Afghanistan and 82 from the Czech Republic.