problem while inheriting a UserControl base

[SpaceMarine]

hello,

i am working on a web application w/ UserControls. some of my controls
use the same functionality (an Event they all raise) so it seemed
sensible to place them into a custom base class, and have my
UserControls inherit it.

problem is, when i do this the im no longer able to raise the event in
deriving UserControls. it fails to compile, saying:

The event 'SubNavControl. NavItemClicked' can only appear on the left
hand side of += or -= (except when used from within the type
'SubNavControl' )

the code:

SubNavControl.c s (base class):
----------------------------------------------------

public class SubNavControl : UserControl
{
//delegate for nav-button clicks
public delegate void NavItemClick(ob ject sender, System.EventArg s
e);

//event for the same
public event NavItemClick NavItemClicked;
}

SubNav.ascx.cs (deriving class):
----------------------------------------------------

public partial class SubNav : SubNavControl
{
protected void imgSection1_Cli ck(object sender, ImageClickEvent Args
e)
{
//raise the event defined in base -- FAILS. works if delegate/
event
//is local only, not if in the base (see error message above)
base.NavItemCli cked(this, e);
}

}
....whats up? doing something wrong?

thanks!
sm