JspCompilationContext.createCompiler NPE thrown Tomcat5.5.9

[aisne]

I am attempting to configure Tomcat5.5.9 to run with JSPs. Tomcat starts fine (no errors), but when I attempt to browse my initial JSP page, I get the following error:

DEBUG http-8080-Processor24 org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool - Getting new thread data
DEBUG http-8080-Processor25 org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper - Returning non-STM instance
DEBUG http-8080-Processor25 org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper - Returning non-STM instance
DEBUG http-8080-Processor25 org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet - JspEngine --> /index.jsp
DEBUG http-8080-Processor25 org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet - ServletPath: /index.jsp
DEBUG http-8080-Processor25 org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet - PathInfo: null
DEBUG http-8080-Processor25 org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet - RealPath: C:\Program Files\netbeans-5.0\enterprise2\jakarta-tomcat-5.5.9\webapps\registeruser\index.jsp
DEBUG http-8080-Processor25 org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet - RequestURI: /registeruser/
DEBUG http-8080-Processor25 org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet - QueryString: null
DEBUG http-8080-Processor25 org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet - Request Params:
ERROR http-8080-Processor25 org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/registeruser].[jsp] - Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.jasper.JspCompilationContext.createCompiler(JspCompilationContext.java:220)
at org.apache.jasper.JspCompilationContext.compile(JspCompilationContext.java:552)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:293)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:291)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:241)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:252)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:178)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:126)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:105)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:148)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:856)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:744)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:527)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:80)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:684)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)

As you can see I have log4j logging running in DEBUG mode.

My JAVA_HOME is : c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_06 (from echo in catalina.bat)

My web.xml file jsp-related contents as follows:

<servlet>
<servlet-name>jsp</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>fork</param-name>
<param-value>false</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<param-name>xpoweredBy</param-name>
<param-value>false</param-value>
</init-param>

<init-param>
<param-name>compilerSourceVM</param-name>
<param-value>1.5</param-value>
</init-param>

<init-param>
<param-name>compilerTargetVM</param-name>
<param-value>1.5</param-value>
</init-param>

<init-param>
<param-name>compiler</param-name>
<param-value>javac</param-value>
</init-param>

<load-on-startup>2</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>jsp</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.jsp</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Can anyone help me as I am going crazy with this.

Regards,
Liz