gdal_merge.py usage

[Travis Kirstine GIS Tech]

I've been trying without success to use gdal_merge.py.  I've download the
latest version of FW Tools and tried to use gdal_merge with the following
command

>"C:\Program Files\FWTools0.9.8\pymod\gdal_merge.py" tiff_merge_test
orth176170475152002fbs.tif orth176170475202002fbs.tif
orth176170475252002fbs.tif

With this I received the message to "Select Program to open gdal_merge.py"
I then checked any threads that could help
http://list.maptools.org/pipermail/gdal_dev/2003-August/000985.html

and tried to set my environmental variables to

>set OPENEV_HOME="C:\Program Files\FWTools0.9.8"
>set path=%OPENEV_HOME%\bin;%OPENEV_HOME%\python\Lib;\%PATH%
>set PYTHONHOME=%OPENEV_HOME%\python
>set
PYTHONPATH=%OPENEV_HOME%\pymod;%PYTHONHOME%\include\Numeric;%PYTHONHOME%\Lib
>"C:\Program Files\FWTools0.9.8\pymod\gdal_merge.py" tiff_merge_test
orth176170475152002fbs.tif orth176170475202002fbs.tif
orth176170475252002fbs.tif

This didn't seem to do anything and I still received the message Select
Program message, I then browsed to
C:\Program Files\FWTools0.9.8\python\python.exe
and received the error message "application has failed, python23.dll not
found"

Any help would be great

Travis