this is probably a simple one. I'm getting this ClassDefNotFound error at line marked (*) with stateless session beans that are in 2 different packages like so.

Bean a1:

package a;

import b.bean

public class a1 implements SessionBean {

....

b1 bean b = new b1(); // (*)
b.somemethod();
}

bean b1

package b;
public class b1 implements SessionBean {

....

(The two packages are deployed separately as individual jars)
This should work under Jboss, right -or am I going mad?
It works ok when just debugging the files as classes locally under Forte, but not when deployed under JBoss.
Is it a jboss.xml problem ?

All input appreciated, thanks