Spring bean loading issue in BIRT designer - eclipse

Question

I have an issue with Spring not loading beans correctly when run from a script in a BIRT Scripted Data Source, but running OK on its own.
Here's a minimal test case:
The spring bean:
package test;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
#Component
public class TestComponent { }
The context provider:
package test;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
public class SpringContextHolder {
private static ApplicationContext ac;
public static ApplicationContext getApplicationContext() {
if( ac == null ) {
ac = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath:beans.xml");
}
return ac;
}
}
beans.xml:
<beans .......>
<context:component-scan base-package="test"></context:component-scan>
<context:annotation-config />
</beans>
And finally the test program which is a simple Eclipse java project having all spring and related jars and the test.jar from above in its build path:
public class cltest {
public static void main(String[] args ) throws BeansException {
System.out.println(test.SpringContextHolder.getApplicationContext().getBean("testComponent"));
}
}
This program runs fine and delivers the bean. But when I run the same jars in BIRT designer (4.3.0) by setting them in the Report classpath preferences, I get an exception:
A BIRT exception occurred. See next exception for more information.
Wrapped org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to read candidate component class: URL [jar:file:/C:/Users/xxx/.m2/repository/test/test/0.0.1-SNAPSHOT/test-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar!/test/SpringContextHolder.class]; nested exception is java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 6
The script source is simply:
importPackage(Packages.test);
ts = SpringContextHolder.getApplicationContext().getBean("testComponent");
The exception results from org.springframework.asm.ClassReader where a readShort violates some array boundaries.
Spring version is 3.2.3 RELEASE, Oracle Java 7u25, BIRT Designer 4.3.0.
Can anyone explain what the difference between the two running scenarios is? Probably some class loader issues when the jars are loaded by the eclipse runtime?