Applet param returning null with Java 1.5

[dwt]

I've created an applet with the following set of parameters in the
HTML:

<OBJECT classid="clsid:8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93" id=List
width="950" height="500"
codebase="http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/autodl/jinstall-1_5_0-windows-i586.cab#Version=1,5,0,0">
<PARAM NAME="code" VALUE="list">

<PARAM NAME="id" VALUE="123456789">
<PARAM NAME="year" VALUE="2005">
<COMMENT>
<EMBED type="application/x-java-applet;version=1.5" width="950"
height="500" code="list"
pluginspage="http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.html">
<NOEMBED>
No support for JDK 1.5 applets found!
</NOEMBED>
</EMBED>
</COMMENT>
</OBJECT>

in the init method I call getParameter:

year=getParameter("year");
id=getParameter("id");

The getParamter method always returns null.

Any ideas?