Thread.Abort in Web Service

I am using a third party DLL which is the interface to an off-the-shelf
document management system (so I have to use it). Unfortunately it is very
poor and if there is a problem with the server, calls to this DLL simply hang
(on the order of 5 minutes). When this occurs that means there is a problem
with the Server and I need to communicate back to the consumers of my Web
Service this is the case. Basically, I need to set some kind of timeout and
interrupt the dll call. My first solution was as follows...(or some
variation thereof)

public class MyService : WebService
{
private Thread _primaryThread;
private System.Timers.Timer _timeoutTimer;

public MyService()
{
InitializeComponent();
_primaryThread = Thread.CurrentThread;
_timeoutTimer = new System.Timers.Timer( 60 * 1000 );
_timeoutTimer.AutoReset = false;
_timeoutTimer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(
TimeoutTimer_Elapsed );
_timeoutTimer.Start();
}

private void TimeoutTimer_Elapsed( object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e )
{
_primaryThread.Abort();
}

[WebMethod]
public void MyWebMethod()
{
try
{
// Make dll call and do other stuff
}
catch( ThreadAbortException e )
{
// Handle the timeout
}
catch( Exception e )
{
// Handle other exceptions
}
}
}

So, when the user calls MyWebMethod() the timer is started and when it
elapses it aborts the thread in which MyWebMethod is running.
However, MyWebMethod() does not catch the ThreadAbortException. Rather,
..NET catches it and returns some html text (not SOAP) containing details of
the Thread.Abort(). So, I can't catch the ThreadAbortException()? - why?

Any ideas?

Thanks,
--
Dan S

--
Dan S