JQuery :: Dynamically Add Area To Map And Highlight On Hover

I am trying to dynamically add an area to a map and hilight it on hover. I can accomplish this in the html code like this...
<script>
$(function(){
$('.map'}.maphilight();
});
</script>
<map id="mapPoly">
<area id="poly" shape="polygon" coords="0,9,5,0,15,0,20,9,15,17,5,17" href="http://www..." class="{...}"/>
</map>

I can add the area successfully with javascript like this...
function AddArea(){
var element = document.createElement("area");
element.id="poly"; element.shape="polygon";
element.coords="0,9,5,0,15,0,20,9,15,17,5,17";
element.href="http://www...";
mapPoly.appendChild(element);
}

The only thing I cannot figure out is how to add the "class" to the element which sets the properties for the highlighting. It will not allow me to do this,
element.class="{fillColor:ff0000}".