Spacing movie clips horizontally

programming flash
1

I am making a menu that is horizontal and changed by XML. Since I wont know the actual length of each menu item, I need to dynamically space them event horizontally. I am getting weird results with this:


function navLoaded(event:Event):void {
    var nav:XML = new XML(navLoader.data);
	var navLength = nav.children().length();
	nav.ignoreWhitespace = true;
	for (var i:uint = 0; i < navLength; i++)
	{
		var node = nav.menuitem*;
		var title = node.title;
		var content = node.content;
		var menuItem:MainMenuItem = new MainMenuItem();
		menuItem.id = i;
		menuItem.bg.alpha = 0;
		menuItem.txt.text = title;
		menuItem.txt.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT;
		menuItem.bg.width = menuItem.txt.width;
		menuItem.x = menuItem.width * i; //This doesnt seem to be working
		menuItem.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OVER, navOver);
		menuItem.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OUT, navOut);
		header.mainMenuHolder.addChild(menuItem);
	}
}

I have some menu items overlapping each other. Any idea how to get these guys spaced evenly?