Help - Ambient Occlusion

Hello,
I have created a successful ambient occlusion map, and saved it.
I applied it to the materials panel and it looks great, but when i added a texture (grass) to it, i can no longer see my ambient occlusion.
How do i still see my ambient occlusion, (i am using blender 2.5)

in the map to panel for the second texture, turn down the color slider a bit. you may also wish to change the blending mode to ‘multiply’

Tried both, but you loose alot of the detail in the texture (grass), why cant i add the AO map to black and white channels only, or to map it to “refraction or emittence” or something?
cheers though modron