problem sovled....
in the remote system, i set the env variable
$setenv DISPLAY localhost:0.0
now the x-server applicaions work. but i still get the error message..guess this setting has to be done at the global level, anyway i dont have root permission for that machine.
i really dont know what the above changes mean. i got it by some trial and error...hope to understand it soon..
thanks,
rpb