I think AgentM is right. I went to test this code:

use strict;
use CGI qw(:standard);

my $html .= popup_menu(
          -name=>'col_id',
          -values=>[1,2],
          -default=>2, 
          -labels=>{1=>'Ali',2=>'Baba'},
        );
print $html;
[download]

And here is the output I got:

<SELECT NAME="col_id">
<OPTION  VALUE="1">Ali
<OPTION SELECTED VALUE="2">Baba
</SELECT>
[download]

I assume this is what you wanted so the error may not be in the bit of code you provided.

Zenon Zabinski | zdog | zdog7@hotmail.com