Simple question - confining animation to movieclip?

Hi all,
In advance thanks for all the help already on this forum.
I’m trying to create the effect of a map zooming in to a specific country on flash! To do this i’m using embedded movieclips - I’ve converted the map to a different movieclip for each country, and in the movieclip i’m expanding the map to make the chosen country bigger - ie zooming in on that country!!
The problem is - when I expand the map, part of the expanded map covers my stage which has buttons and other stuff - ehen i play my movie i just want to see the map expanding in the movieclip area i’ve created!!!
I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to confine the expansion of the map to my movieclip so that when i play my movie, the map doesn’t rollover onto the stage??
Thanks a mil guys,
Derm