Changing normals through the API

Hi blenderistas,

I’m writing a script (in 2.56) which changes the position of vertices. For light effects on the new surfaces, I want to change the normals. However after changing a normal, blender
sets it soon back to the original one. I already found out that changes have to be made in OBJECT mode and that surface normals can’t be changed (I guess these are defined through the vertice normals).
Can anybody shine any light on this issue? Can I define normals through the API and if so: how?

Thanx in advance,
Claud