run scp in background?

[Stonelx <mike@stonelx.ath.cx>]

Hi,
I tried this command:

scp /etc/file remotehost:/etc/file &

but when scp asks for the password, I'm actually
back on the command line. (thus the scp command fails)
Is there anyway around this? I would love
to be able to run scp in the background.
I looked at the man page, and see a flag -B ,
but I don't quite get how that works.
I basically want to remote shell into my server,
run a scp command that may take serveral hours, but
be able to let the scp take place while I exit the shell
and go for lunch.

Thanks!
Mike