Problem configuring a local .deb repository

[Harold Crouch <hcrouch@mchsi.com>]

I downloaded the latest openoffice.org2 tarball from
ftp.linux.cz/pub/localization/OpenOffice.org/devel/680/
into /local_debs/ on my hard drive. Untarring the tarball gave me a
directory full of .deb files.

I then did: 

     apt-ftparchive packages /local_debs/ | gzip Packages.gz

I examined Packages.gz, and saw that the debs were all *correctly*
described as being located at /local_debs/openofficeorg-...  I left
Packages.gz inside /local_debs/.

I added a new line to /etc/apt/sources.list which reads 

     deb file:/local_debs/ ./

I then did 

     apt-get update && apt-get upgrade openoffice.org. 

The update worked just fine. However, the upgrade command generates
multiple error messages, all starting with: 

     Failed to fetch file: /local_debs//local_debs/openofficeorg-...

Obviously the line I added to /etc/apt/sources.list isn't quite
kosher. Suggestions, please!