Macports and http proxy

Hey I'm not able to get a connection with MacPorts 1.5 running on Leopard. It loops trying to download the files from all the mirrors it knows but isn't able to make a connection. Arg, I didn't used to have this problem in 10.4. I've set a http_proxy env variable as well as a "proxy =" line in .curlrc. Curl itself from the commandline works perfectly fine, however when invoked by Macports it just doesn't make the connection. Can anyone help? Thanks! Q