Office XP fouls up Office 2K mail merge

[dbatlmu]

Running an Access database built in Office 2000 in Office XP. Access Database date fields are all standard UK format. i.e., 1/9/2005, both in Office 2K and XP

However, A Word mail merge document that is fine in Office 2k creates a Mergefield date format in US style i.e., 9/1/2005 in Office XP - I noticed when I checked the Data source that all the dates were in US format as well.

I'm tearing my hair out trying to find the cause - PCs are all set to UK language, Spelling and keyboards -Word is set to UK language.

Can someone help as this makes a mockery of using mailmerge if I have to set the correct date every month for this mailmerge.

Regards

David