MySQL from python - dropping a database IF EXISTS

[Ben]

Can someone explain why this might be happening:

parser_beta.py:129: Warning: Can't drop database 'foobar'; database
doesn't exist
  self.cursor.execute("DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS "+name)

But the whole point about the "IF EXISTS" bit is (I thought) that it
will only drop it if it exists, if it doesn't do nothing and don't
throw an error.

I'm using MySQL 5.024 and python 2.4.3

It still works, but the unneccesary error is annoying :-) Any ideas?

Cheers,

Ben