[MX2004] textArea component does not display data

I created a simple flash doc as follows:

1 txtArea with instance name: testTxt

on 1st frame of action layer I put in the code:

// load text file
var exData:LoadVars = new LoadVars();
exData.onLoad = function(success) {
if(success) {
_root.testTxt.txt = exData.txtTest;
} else
trace(“Load failed”);
}
exData.load("…/xml/test.txt");
stop();

my Text file is: test.txt

txtTest=This is a test, blah. blah,blah…

Running in the debug mode I can see that the data is being loaded correctly
but it does not display in the textArea at all. Any Ideas ??? please advise