Movieclip buttons, controlling movie from main timeline

I have some buttons inside a m.c., and I when you click on these buttons they load external swf’s. Now, I am trying to place all the code for these buttons on the main timeline instead of inside the m.c.

I tried a few things–

partc_btn.onRelease = function(){
loadMovieNum(“partc.swf”, 1);
}

medicareBTN_mc.partc_btn.onRelease = function(){
loadMovieNum(“partc.swf”, 1);
}

any suggestions???

thanks,
hutch