[jQuery] Objected Expected $ Conflict?

[Pete]

I'm trying to build a simple news carousel, click a tab and the
corresponding div shows. My Code works in FF, Chrome, Opera and Safari
but no luck in IE 6 or 7. I think it has something to do with $,
because IE7 is saying there is an Object Expected at that char
position.

Any help is appreciated, my code is below.

<script src="js/jquery-1.2.6.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--

current = 1;
function showSlide(slideNum)
{
           if (slideNum != current){
                $('#carousel #item' + current).fadeOut("slow").addClass
("hidden");
                $('#carousel #item' + slideNum).fadeIn("slow").removeClass
("hidden");
                current = slideNum;
                 }
           }

//-->
</script>