[Zope] XMLDcoument setAttribute error

[Matt]

I have an external method like the following

def make_an_element(self,REQUEST):
    new_elem = self.createElement(REQUEST.new_elem_name)
    new_elem.setAttribute('hello','there')
    self.appendChild(new_elem)

I call this on an XMLdocument root node and get the following error at
the setAttribute stage :

                   Error Type: AttributeError
                   Error Value: aq_base



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Traceback (innermost last):
  File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py,
line 222, in publish_module
  File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py,
line 187, in publish
  File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/Zope/__init__.py, line
221, in zpublisher_exception_hook
    (Object: Manageable)
  File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py,
line 171, in publish
  File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/mapply.py,
line 160, in mapply
    (Object: acceptLiveFileInfo2)
  File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py,
line 112, in call_object
    (Object: acceptLiveFileInfo2)
  File
/usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/Products/ExternalMethod/ExternalMethod.py,
line 263, in __call__
    (Object: acceptLiveFileInfo2)
    (Info: ((<Document instance at 8624868>, <h3>form</h3><table><tr
valign="top" align="left"><th>fdate</th><td>001108</td></tr><tr
valign="top"  ...
align="left"><th>fname</th><td>p001108_0000</td></tr><tr
  File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/Extensions/vs_live_file.py, line
32, in acceptLiveFileInfo2
    (Object: Manageable)
  File
/usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/Products/XMLDocument/Node.py,
line 753, in setAttribute
    (Object: Manageable)
  File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/OFS/PropertyManager.py,
line 243, in _setProperty
    (Object: Manageable)
  File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/OFS/PropertyManager.py,
line 198, in valid_property_id
    (Object: Manageable)
AttributeError: (see above)

any ideas ?

regards
Matt Bion