Coreutils package: installation problem

[Robin Cosby <robin@cosby.demon.co.uk>]

Hello,

I'm running Debian Woody on my PC, under Linux kernel version 2.6.9, and 
am having trouble installing the "testing" package coreutils-5.2.1-2. 

The command "apt-get install coreutils" returns the following message:

> Reading Package Lists ...
> Building Dependency Tree...
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
  coreutils
> Unpacking coreutils (from .../coreutils_5.2.1-2_i386.deb) ...
> install-info: No dir file specified;  try  --help for more information.
> dpkg: error processing /root/debs/coreutils_5.2.1-2_i386.deb  (--unpack):
>  subprocess pre-installation script  returned error exit status 1
> Errors were encountered while processing :
>  /root/debs/coreutils_5.2.1-2_i386.deb
> E:  sub-process  /usr/bin/dpkg returned  an error code (1)

I have found references to this problem reported in Google Groups, but 
no information on how to resolve it.

Any help will be gratefully appreciated.

TIA

Robin Cosby