Hi,

It seems that there is a problem with parsing betex - etex blocks in the 
following situation:
I can not say with which version this has been introduced. (I messed up 
my old TeX, so I have only new ones)
I tested this with the version of 19-12-2005 an 30-11-2005.

\setMPtext{1}{CENTER}
 
\startuseMPgraphic{TEST}
    picture Text;
    Text := \MPbetex{1};
    draw Text;
\stopuseMPgraphic

the betex-etex block will look like 'tex CENTERetex' of course the etex 
should be separated by a space.
For testing I attach the minimal file.

Willi