JTextArea won't update

Could any of you please help me with this problem: I have a JTextArea that needs to update while my program is running. The method that should do the update, looks like this:

public void alg()

{

.....

for (int t=0;t<this.nr_gen1;t++)

{

String s=new String("t= "+t+"\n");

this.jta.append(s);// jta is the JTextArea

this.jta.updateUI();

try{

Thread.currentThread().sleep(600);

} catch(Exception e){

}

}

.........

}

Well, if I call this method from main, it updates the JTextArea while the program is running. But if I call it from a button's ActionPerformed method, the JTextArea won't update and the results are displayed in the JTextArea only when the program finishes.

I would be very grateful if you could help me with this.>

[847 byte] By [Iuliana_Bocicora] at [2007-11-27 8:50:50]