are you recommending i try LWP as an alternative to using curl ?

Absolutely! LWP (or a similar module) keeps everything within perl. This means that there's no comparable overhead (no shell or sub-process to be created) and that the response can be examined easily and in detail instead of just getting the integer return code from system(). It also gives you a cookie jar, control over SSL options (where applicable) and all manner of other goodies. Definitely give it a try.