Sorry not to reply sooner. I lost my phone lines and internet connection shortly after sending the question. They're still not back on, which is why I am sending this from a new login from work.

No, I haven't tried using "&" to put the system call into the background. As the main script stalls while waiting for the system call to return, I'm not sure how putting the command into the background will help.

Thanks for the thought. I might give it a go, but I'm not optimistic it will help.

Cheers,

Bruno