error in mailman setup - perfect sever Ubuntu 11.10 X64

[Tastiger]

The following error about says it all - had it working no problems under a x32 setup...

Setting up mailman (1:2.1.14-1ubuntu2) ...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/var/lib/mailman/bin/list_lists", line 46, in <module>
    from Mailman import mm_cfg
  File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py", line 76
    DEFAULT_SERVER_LANGUAGE =
                             ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Installing site language en ............................................ done.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/mailman/bin/update", line 49, in <module>
    from Mailman import mm_cfg
  File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py", line 76
    DEFAULT_SERVER_LANGUAGE =
                             ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
dpkg: error processing mailman (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mailman
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code

any help appreciated

edit to add - also unable to uninstall mailman to try from scratch