Passing variable from PHP to JS file works in Firefox and Chrome but not Internet Explorer

Passing variable from PHP to JS file works in Firefox and Chrome but not Internet Explorer

Here is a snippet of my php...
  1. <script type="application/javascript">
  2. <?php echo "var dataString='albumid=".$_GET['albumid']."';\n"; ?>
  3. </script>
  4. <script src="js/simplethumbgallery.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
As you can see I am using the PHP to set a javascript variable.  Firefox and Chrome have no problem with this.  IE however errors out inside simplethumbgallery.js and says that dataString is undefined.

For further clarification I have attached the beginning of the code in the js file that is trying to use dataString
  1. $(document).ready(function(){
  2. //hover thumb in albumlist
  3. $("albumlistbody a").fadeTo("fast", 0.65);
  4. //load album in the background
  5. $.ajax({
  6. type: "POST",
  7. url: "../content/album_load.php",
  8. data: dataString,
  9. success: function(html){
  10. $("#gallery").html( html );

Not that this helps but here is the IE error just in case...