focus on input field

focus on input field

I have the following html
<div id="xx">>
<html:form ....>
<html:text property="title" value="" styleId="forum_newthread_title" />
</html:form
</div>

The xx div is opened as a overlay using jQuery.overlay plugin. Now this works great. But when this form is opened i want to give focus to the first html:text field.

I tried
$("#xx", ":input:text:first").focus();
$("#xx1", ":input:text:visible:enabled:first").focus();
etc but it doesnt work

could anyone please tell me how I can fix this