BOLTON and Bury are well represented in the regional short-list for the 2003 UK Online for Business Interforum E-Commerce Awards.

Four companies from Bolton and two from Bury will hear tonight if they have won at a ceremony held by regional sponsor BT at the Thistle Hotel, Haydock.

Companies short-listed include Dabs.Com; 10ticks.co.uk; The Tan Factory and The Octagon Theatre from Bolton and FFHS (Publica- tions) Ltd and Speakeasy from Bury.

These companies have been short-listed from 567 entries from around the North West, a leap of 81 per cent on last year.

Four regional winners will receive cheques for £2,000 -- although local companies are only represented in three of the categories.

In the E-Trading category, Dabs.com, a retailer of IT products, will be up against 10ticks.co.uk, a retailer of licensed National Curriculum worksheets for school children, The Tan Factory, which supplies tanning lotions to customers and tanning salons, and a company from Clitheroe.

In the Voluntary and Community sector, the Octagon Theatre, Speakeasy, which provides support to people with the brain disorder Aphasia, and FFHS (Publications) Ltd, which publishes on line records compiled by family history societies, compete against each other and entries from Blackburn and Wigan.

Regional winners will go on to compete for an £8,000 national category winner prize at the National Final in October, followed by a showdown with the final four category winners going head-to-head for the title of E-Commerce Awards Champion 2003 and the top prize of £30,000.

The awards -- sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland and Cisco Systems -- recognise and reward organisations that have demonstrated tangible business benefits through their use of the internet and information and communications technologies.