U 11.04 Update Manager fails to obtain update package

[Teddy]

Binary package hint: update-manager

Starting Update Manager in U 11.04 brings up the following error message. Clicking on the close button terminates Update Manager.

Update-manager
An unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package information.
Please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the following error message:
E:Encountered a section with no Package: header,
E:Problem with MergeList/var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-amd64_Packages,
e:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened

[Jamie Strandboge (jdstrand)]

Thank you for using Ubuntu and reporting a bug. I believe the error you were seeing was transient due to a high volume load on the day in question. Please use the 'Check' button in update manager and this issue should go away. Please feel free to reopen if this is not the case.

[Teddy (ted-saker-law)]

New error messages:

Tried to run package manager. This is the error message text:

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-amd64_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

When clicking on "check for updates," the app appears to look for downloads, then displays the following:

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-amd64_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

Running apt-get in terminal yields this result:

Reading package lists... Error!
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_binary-amd64_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

"Installed packages have unmet dependencies" is another hint given by a mouse-over of the error icon.

[Teddy (ted-saker-law)]

Got a solution emailed to me last night. Normal operation has apparently been restored. Should I post it?