JQuery :: IE 7 Receiving A Parse Error Calling A Web Service?

I'm using 1.4.1 and I have two html files, the first one contains

$(document).ready(function() {
$('#recordHit').load("http://localhost/soapcall2.html");
});

the second file, soapcall2.html contains just the following (no <html/>,<head/> or <body/> tags)

<script>
var ServiceUrl = '/ws/';
var CreateSession = ServiceUrl + 'general.asmx?op=CreateUserSession';

[code]....

In IE 7/8 the error: event is triggered with the correct XML (XMLHttpRequest.responseText) but the textStatus reports parserror and the errorThrown returns [object error]. In firefox it runs without any problems and properly sets the sessiontoken variable.