var globalXMLObject;
	var globalXMLObjectComplete=false;

	
	function getRemoteXML(url,async) 
	{ 
			// create the XMLHttpRequest object 
			//NOTE - the globalXMLObject is accessed differently in Firefox - cannot use standard DOM methods - 

			if (window.XMLHttpRequest) 
				{ 
				req = new XMLHttpRequest(); 		
			  } 
			  else if (window.ActiveXObject) 
				{ 											
					req = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); 
			} 
				else
				{											
					return null;
				}

			

		  if(async)
			{
			
				 req.open("GET", url, async); 
				 req.send(null); 
				 // gives the request object an event handler 
				 req.onreadystatechange = function() 
				 { 
					 if ((req.readyState == 4) && (req.status == 200)) 
					 { 											
					 
					  globalXMLObject=req.responseXML;												 
						globalXMLObjectComplete=true;
						return;
					 } 									
					 else 
						return;
				 }; 
			}
			else
			{
				
				 req.open("GET", url, async); 
				 req.send(null); 
				 return req.responseXML;
			}
		
}