my $dd_country_str;
unless(open(FILE, "<countries.txt")){
   die "cannot read file";
}else{
   $dd_country_str .= qq*<select name="countries">\n*;
   while(<FILE>){
      if(/(.*):(.*)/i){ 
         $dd_country_str .= qq*<option value="$1">$2</option>\n*;
      }
   }
   $dd_country_str .= qq*</select>\n*;
   close(FILE);
}
###now call the dd_str you just built;
my $first_dropdown = $dd_country_str;
$first_dropdown =~ s/(value="$country_alias_you_want_selected")/$1 selected="selected"/g; ###XHTML compliant
print $first_dropdown;
.
.
.