Have been using gaim under the above mentioned settings and the crash no longer occurs (until now at least). This is with version 1.5.0+1.5.1cvs20051015-1ubuntu6.
I'm going to close this bug for now.
** Changed in: gaim (Ubuntu)
Status: Needs Info => Fix Released
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gaim segfaults
https://launchpad.net/malone/bugs/20337