Error 429: ActiveX component can't create object

[GerryM]

My apologies in advance if this is considered cross- or multi-posting; I
posted an essentially identical question to the Word.Application.Errors and
Excel.Programming groups a couple of days ago but since I didn't get any
takers I concluded those were the wrong groups to ask.

I'm trying to test the program in MS Knowledge Base article KB285176,
"How to Automate Word to Perform a Client-Side Merge using XML from
SQL Server". The vbScript subroutine ButtonClick() in KB285176 starts
with
Dim oApp
Dim oDoc
Dim oMergedDoc
Set oApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")

The "Set" statement causes Error 429: ActiveX component can't
create object.

The same error occurs using CreateObject("Excel.Sheet") instead of
CreateObject("Word.Application").

I'm running Windows XP Prof.(SP2), Office 2003 (SP1), VB6.0 (SP6), Works
Suite 2003, and have WindowsScript 5.6 installed. I have checked the
Word.Application key in the registry and the Normal.dot template.

What am I missing, and how can I fix it? (If this were VB, I would add a
reference to the appropriate Object Library to the VB Project, but this is
vbScript.)