Youngsters will receive a St Valentine's Day card with a difference this year in a bid to combat the unwanted side effects of teenage love.

Instead of a message of unrequited passion, they will contain a condom and essential advice on contraception and family planning services.

The move is part of a range of activities aimed at promoting the use of contraception in Brighton and Hove and reducing rates of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

Sending out the cards coincides with the Family Planning Association's (FPA) National Contraceptive Awareness Week, which runs until Sunday.

Other schemes planned by Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust (PCT) include distributing information on 13 types of contraception and information on local sexual health services available.

Graham Taylor, the PCT's sexual health and HIV commissioning manager, said: "Young people, in particular young women and gay men, remain the groups we are most concerned about.

"Condoms are the only method to protect against both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Campaigns like this are an important way of reinforcing that message."

Liz Dean, sexual health promotion adviser, said: "Evidence shows that better education and employment opportunities for teenagers alongside improved advice and support around sex, relationships and contraception can make a real difference in bringing teenage pregnancy rates down."

The PCT has recently launched a new service where teenagers can get the morning-after pill from certain specially trained pharmacists in the city.

Initiatives available include improving sexual health and pregnancy information and services for young people and supporting schools to develop sex and relationship education.

Other schemes include supporting teenage parents with specialist midwives, parenthood advice and education and employment opportunities.

Health officials say young people's use of contraception is often erratic and inconsistent and most do not bother to seek advice or contraception until after they are sexually active.

Teenage pregnancy rates for Brighton and Hove currently run at 10.5 per cent above the national average.

A cross-Government teenage pregnancy strategy has set a target to halve the under-18 conception rate by 2010.

Meanwhile, more people are being diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections, official figures reveal.

Latest statistics show the numbers of cases seen in the Brighton genito-urinary medicine clinic have increased by more than 20 per cent, from 22,900 in 2001 to 14,000 for the first six months of 2002.

Chlamydia cases have increased by more than 50 per cent, from 440 in 2001 to an estimated 700 in 2002 and there are about more than 400 gonorrhoea cases a year.

Syphilis cases for the year are expected to more than double from 30 in 2001 to an estimated 80 in 2002.

People with HIV attending the Lawson unit in Brighton have increased by more than 20 per cent. There were about 2,250 attendances in 2001 and the figure for 2002 is expected to be about 2,700.

The actual number of new HIV cases is expected to increase from 126 in 2001 to more than 140 in 2002, with increasing numbers of heterosexual cases.

Sexual health experts will be distributing the St Valentine's Day cards to parents at Hollingdean Community Centre, Thompson Road, Brighton, between 3.30pm and 5pm on Friday.

Experts will also be spreading the message at youth clubs, nightclubs and on a stand in Churchill Square shopping centre in Brighton on Saturday.

Anyone with questions about sexual health and contraception can call the FPA helpline on 0845 3101334.