Unable to start the embedded plexus container?

[Lee Goddard <le...@bbc.co.uk>]

I copied the Maven 2.2 files, all but settings.xml, and got the error
"Unable to start the embedded plexus container." 

I then rmoved the new files and reverted to the old, and still get the
error, as below.

Any ideas how I should start debugging this? I'ven ot updated my POM in
ages -- it seems that one day it was working, and the next month it
wasn't...

TIA
Lee

D:\earth-db>mvn -v
Apache Maven 2.1.0 (r755702; 2009-03-18 19:10:27+0000)
Java version: 1.6.0_11
Java home: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_11\jre
Default locale: en_GB, platform encoding: Cp1252
OS name: "windows xp" version: "5.1" arch: "x86" Family: "windows"
D:\earth-db>mvn
FATAL ERROR: Unable to start the embedded plexus container
For more information, run with the -e flag

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