SELECT statement during transaction

hi all,

i am running a process in which say 20 tables are in transaction.
During this case i can't even able to execute SELECT statement in any
of these tables from outside the transaction, until the transaction is
commited or rolled back.

for each transaction it takes around some 15 secs to commit or roll
back. is SELECT query has to wait until transaction completes or is
there any other way or what could be the problem here?

thankx for any help.

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Said the attractive, cigar-smoking housewife to her girl-friend: "I got
started one night when George came home and found one burning in the ashtray."
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Regards,
Bhuvaneswar.