--compress ; not working in config file

[Atom 'Smasher']

according to the man page:
    OPTIONS
	Long options can be put in an options file (default
	"~/.gnupg/gpg.conf").  Short option names will not work - for
	example, "armor"  is a valid option for the options file, while
	"a" is not.  Do not write the 2 dashes, but simply the name of the
	option and any required arguments.  Lines with a hash ('#') as the
	first non-white- space character are ignored.  Commands may be put
	in this file too, but that is not generally useful as the command
	will execute automatically with every execution of gpg.

one of the options listed in that section is:
    -z n, --compress n
	Set compression level to n. A value of 0 for n disables com-
	pression. Default is to use the default compression level of zlib
	(normally 6).

but if i try adding a line to my config:
	compress x
regardless of the value (or presence) of 'x', i get an "invalid option"
message, and gpg bails out, exit status 2.

according to my reading of the man page, i should be able to add a line
there to my config file and specify a compression level... any ideas?

am i reading something wrong? is this supposed to work?

i'm using gpg 1.2.3.


	...atom

_______________________________________________
PGP key - http://smasher.suspicious.org/pgp.txt
3EBE 2810 30AE 601D 54B2 4A90 9C28 0BBF 3D7D 41E3
-------------------------------------------------

	"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it,
	 doesn't go away."
		-- Philip K. Dick