Redhat mutt with xterm-debian

[Andrew Leiserson <aleiserson@rm-r.net>]

I have a problem running a RedHat compiled mutt on a terminal set to
xterm-debian. It fails with the message "Error initializing terminal." and
leaves the terminal in a broken state (staircase effect with prompt, no echo
of what I type). 

It is possible to work around this with:
export TERM=nxterm
tset

but since I have the xterm-debian entry in ~/.terminfo/x/ I don't see why
mutt shouldn't work.

Is this a bug in the xterm-debian entry or in the redhat mutt?

Thanks,

Andy