Courtney Love burst into tears after being ordered into rehab for 28 days. The former singer of the band Hole, and ex-wife of Kurt Cobain was told by a Los Angeles judge yesterday she was lucky to avoid jail.

Love admitted to the Los Angeles court she had been using drugs in breach of her probation on assault charges. She had been facing jail but pleas from her lawyer led to Love, 41, being ordered to a "chemical dependency centre".

"I'm convinced that you need either a long-term (treatment) program or a long-term stay in the county jail," Judge Rand Rubin said yesterday.

Love was in court after a suspected overdose at Los Angeles' Roosevelt Hotel last month while on probation for being under the influence of cocaine, illegal possession of the painkiller oxycodone and assaulting a woman at the home of her ex-boyfriend.