A KOSOVAR asylum seeker who says he found true love in a Blackburn nightclub faces being split from his new wife -- just a month after they were married.

And a red tape wrangle has left him and his new family without money for food or heating after their benefits were stopped.

Today, Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw said: " If someone will contact me with the details, I will look into the case."

Bilbil Ahmetaj, an ethnic Albanian, met Zareena Khan in Utopia nightclub, Blackburn, seven months ago. They married at Blackburn register office on January 4. It is believed to be the first marriage in East Lancashire involving an asylum seeker and a British citizen.

He arrived in this country 12 months ago with his younger brother, who lives in the south, claiming they were fleeing ill-treatment by the Serb authorities.

About 700 asylum seekers from around the world are housed temporarily in East Lancashire.

Bilbil is set to find out whether or not he can stay in Britain during a court hearing in Manchester on February 8. If he is deported Zareena has promised to follow him back to Kosovo. "I was out at the club with my friends and I bumped into him, our eyes met and you could say it was love at first sight," said Zareena. "My sister-in-law already knew him so we arranged to meet again through her and it went from there."

Bilbil's solicitor, Diane Smith, of Blackburn law firm Ramsbottom & Co, said marriage did not affect the decision of the immigration authorities.

"His last asylum hearing was adjourned so he could gather medical evidence to show he still has flashbacks about what he saw in his country," she said.

"Some asylum seekers think if they marry someone from this country it means they can stay, which isn't true. This couple are very much in love and decided to get married for all the right reasons."

She said she knew of another local couple who are planning to marry but Zareena and Bilbil were the first British national and an asylum seeker she had heard of marrying in East Lancashire.

If he is deported, Zareena would have to go to Kosovo with him or stay in this country and apply for a visa for Bilbil which could last more than a year based on the fact she is his wife and living in this country.

"I he has to go back to Kosovo I will go with him and take my kids too," said Zareena, who was born in Blackburn to a Muslim father and English mother.

Bilbil said: "If I go back I'm afraid I will be arrested and beaten up by the police again or even shot. I've not married just to stay in this country, I totally disagree with that."

In July Bilbil was told he did not qualify for asylum but kept up his fight. He told Home Office officials his ill-treatment by the Serbs began in 1991 and he and his family suffered varying degrees of abuse. He said his father was detained for four months and Serb police ransacked his house looking for weapons and regularly beat up him and his family. The benefits mix-up has left Bilbil, Zareena and three children, with no power at their council home in Rhyl Avenue, Blackburn, when the credit on their gas and electricity payment scheme ran out last Sunday. They say they have no money and are relying on Zareena's relatives and neighbours to give them food.

"We're really struggling," said Zareena, whose children Daniel, 11, Simone, 8, and four-year-old Shane, are from a previous relationship. "This is my third week without any money and things are getting desperate."

Zareena, 30, said she was told by DSS staff she could not claim for herself because she was married and she could not claim for herself and 26-year-old Bilbil as a married couple because he was an asylum seeker and did not have a national insurance number.

She used to get £110 a week income support, £37 a week child benefit and had her rent and council tax paid. Bilbil, who received £20 a week in food vouchers and £10 spending money through the asylum voucher scheme, also had his payments stopped.

A Benefits Agency spokesman said he could not comment on individual cases but staff would look into the situation.