Exporting Data to Excel

I am using the code below to export my data into an excel file. The code is located in a password protected area which is checked against saved session variables. However when I put session_start(); the download errors out. Does any one have any suggestions? Please help. <? session_start(); $connection = @mysql_connect("$host", "$uname", "$pass") or die("Couldn't connect."); $db = @mysql_select_db($db_name, $connection) or die("Couldn't select database."); /* Specify the filename, which includes a datestamp for archival purposes... */ $date_stamp = date("Ymd"); $file_name = "ExportedData" . "_" . "$date_stamp" . ".xls"; /* Specify MIME type for tab-separated-values... */ //header("Content-type: text/tab-separated-values"); /* To open file directly into Excel, use this MIME type instead... */ header("Content-type: application/x-msexcel"); /* To force file download... */ header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$file_name"); /* List the spreadsheet column labels (optional)... */ $column_labels = array("Label 1", "Label 2 ", "Label 3"); /* ...and so on */ foreach($column_labels as $value) { echo("$value\t"); } echo("\n"); /* ...end column labels row */ /* Specify the SELECT query (you will need to change this)... */ $query = "SELECT * FROM buyers"; /* Execute the query... */ $result = mysql_query($query); /* Format data as tab-separated values... */ while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) { while (list($key, $value) = each($row)) { echo ("$value" . "\t"); } echo ("\n"); } ?>