problem reading format="(131i1)" data

[Lev Tarasoff <lev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a lat/long gridded ascii data file, with fortran format ="(131i1)"

Neither 
set data/format="(131i1)"/SKIP=4/VAR="img"/GRID=na105T36 icemarg.asc.100k
nor
file/format="(131i1)"/SKIP=4/VAR="img"/GRID=na105T36 icemarg.asc.100k
would read this properly. I get the error message

 **TMAP ERR: Last or next-to-last record read:
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

(ie it would bomb out on the first data line).

However, when I modified the file by inserting a space after each digit,
(ie format now (131(i1,1x))
then 
file/col=131/SKIP=4/VAR="img"/GRID=na105T36
worked fine.

How can a read (131i1) formatted ascii data directly?

thanks

Lev