Cant type unicode with compose anymore

[Rustom Mody]

For some time now I have this in my X startup programs:
$ setxkbmap -option compose:menu

After this I can type (in mostly any window) for example:
(with MN being the windows-menu key)
MN.. gives ...  ie an ellipses
MN--. gives - ie an en dash
MN--- gives -- ie an em dash
Not to mention all the e" giving ë
etc etc - all the unicode goodies at /usr/share/X11/locale/$LANG/Compose


Now suddenly its stopped working.
ie it works in most other X apps but not in emacs

I thought there may be a race-condition between the setxkb and emacs
which are both in my startup programs.
So I ran the setxkb command by hand from a shell and (re)started emacs
from the shell

No luck:
The compose works outside emacs
Doesn't work inside

Any clues?

Its the same for emacs 23 and 24