parse errors when connecting to remote host

Hi everybody

When connecting to a remote host I get some strange parse errors. Here
the output from the console:

$ psql -h hostname -U username
Password:
ERROR: parser: parse error at or near "."
Welcome to psql 7.3.2, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.

Type: \copyright for distribution terms
\h for help with SQL commands
\? for help on internal slash commands
\g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
\q to quit

postgr=> \d
ERROR: parser: parse error at or near "."
postgr=> \l
ERROR: parser: parse error at or near "("

Other backslash-commands like \x \q \? \r are working as expected.

my version: 7.3.2
version on target host: 7.2.0

Can anybody give some hints what's wrong?

Thanks in advance
Conni