Even simpler would be to follow the advice in lwpcook:

       Lazy people use the HTTP::Request::Common module to set up
       a suitable POST request message (it handles all the escap-
       ing issues) and has a suitable default for the con-
       tent_type:

         use HTTP::Request::Common qw(POST);
         use LWP::UserAgent;
         $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;

         my $req = POST 'http://www.perl.com/cgi-bin/BugGlimpse',
                       [ search => 'www', errors => 0 ];

         print $ua->request($req)->as_string;

       The lwp-request program (alias POST) that is distributed
       with the library can also be used for posting data.
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-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker