Thread Hangs at split method.

Hi,

When i am trying to run the following code in a loop in my application my thread is hanging the server.

Code java:

    /**
     * Finds the separator for time string.
     * 
     * @param timeString time as a string.
     * @return separator.
     */
    private static String findSeparator(String timeString)
    {
        String separator = ":";
        if (timeString != null)
        {
            if (timeString.indexOf(separator) == -1)
            {
                separator = "\.";
            }
        }
        return separator;
    }
 
    /**
     * Convert the time in HH:MM to time in minutes.
     * 
     * @param timeString time string to be converted (HH:MM:SS).
     * @return the time in HH:MM to time in minutes.
     */
    public static int toMinutes(String timeString, String separator)
    {
        Assert.isTrue(validateTimeString(timeString, separator), "Invalid Time String ["
                + timeString + "]");
 
        String[] timeParts = timeString.split(separator);
 
        int hrs = Integer.parseInt(timeParts[0]);
        int mins = Integer.parseInt(timeParts[1]);
 
        return (hrs * 60) + mins;
    }
 
    /**
     * Convert the time in HH:MM to time in minutes.
     * 
     * @param timeString time string to be converted (HH:MM:SS).
     * @return the time in HH:MM to time in minutes.
     */
    public static int toMinutes(String timeString)
    {
        int minutes = 0;
 
        if (timeString != null)
        {
            String separator = findSeparator(timeString);
 
            minutes = toMinutes(timeString, separator);
        }
        return minutes;
    }

below is log.

[11/23/10 16:58:13:232 CET] 00000027 ThreadMonitor W WSVR0605W: Thread "WebContainer : 1" (00000022) has been active for 720641 milliseconds and may be hung. There is/are 1 thread(s) in total in the server that may be hung.
at java.util.regex.Pattern.atom(Pattern.java:1885)
at java.util.regex.Pattern.sequence(Pattern.java:1794 )
at java.util.regex.Pattern.expr(Pattern.java:1687)
at java.util.regex.Pattern.compile(Pattern.java:1397)
at java.util.regex.Pattern.<init>(Pattern.java:1124)
at java.util.regex.Pattern.compile(Pattern.java:817)
at java.lang.String.split(String.java:2103)
at java.lang.String.split(String.java:2145)

Please help.

Thank you.
Kailas