Cannot open the DBF created from the SaveAs option of Excel

Hi,

I have an Excel sheet with 150 columns and 8 rows of data, when I use the
SaveAs option under the File menu of Excel with Type DBF4, it creates the
dbf file with no errors. But when I try to open the file from VFP, it
indictaes the following error and cannot be opened.
"Table 'H:\Book11.dbf' has become corrupted. The table will need to be
repaired before using again."

But if I reduce the width of the columns in the Excel and then save it as a
DBF, it is possible to opend the table even with 150 columns from VFP.
The limit in VFP is a max. of 254 fields and max. no. of characters per
record is 65500.

Further figured out that the DBF created from Excel can have a maximum of
3999 characters for it to be opened from VFP.

I am using MS Excel2003(11.6560.6568) SP2 and VFP9 SP1
Even programmatically using the Excel.SaveAs() from VFP causes the problem
Each column in the Excel sheet is 27 points when it fails, but with 26
points it suceeds.

Could someone please advice how to avoid this problem and create a DBF with
data from Excel.