Thanks again Ray.
i was a bit zealous in getting the navigation as an include and moved the styles as well as the menu code.
You were also correct in that it didn't make a difference.
I also tried neilo's sugestion, in adding the style directly to the head section of my page, and it works, so i now get a consistent style across the browsers. - thanks Neilo, but i'm not satisfied that its the best answer.
i'm open to more suggestions