diff --git a/docs/api.md b/docs/api.md
index 672a06a..02d8256 100644
--- a/docs/api.md
+++ b/docs/api.md
@@ -1059,6 +1059,45 @@ To unregister a listener *outside* of the listener function...
 [buk2]: http://wiki.bukkit.org/Event_API_Reference
 [buk]: http://jd.bukkit.org/dev/apidocs/index.html?org/bukkit/event/Event.html
 
+http.request() function
+====================
+The http.request() function will fetch a web address asynchronously (on a
+separate thread)and pass the URL's response to a callback function
+which will be executed synchronously (on the main thread).  In this
+way, http.request() can be used to fetch web content without blocking the
+main thread of execution.
+
+Parameters
+----------
+
+ * request: The request details either a plain URL e.g. "http://scriptcraft.js/sample.json" or an object with the following properties...
+
+   - url: The URL of the request.
+   - method: Should be one of the standard HTTP methods, GET, POST, PUT, DELETE (defaults to GET).
+   - params: A Javascript object with name-value pairs. This is for supplying parameters to the server.
+
+ * callback: The function to be called when the Web request has completed. This function takes the following parameters...
+   - responseCode: The numeric response code from the server. If the server did not respond with 200 OK then the response parameter will be undefined.
+   - response: A string (if the response is of type text) or object containing the HTTP response body.
+
+Example
+-------
+The following example illustrates how to use http.request to make a request to a JSON web service and evaluate its response...
+
+    var jsResponse;
+    http.request("http://scriptcraftjs.org/sample.json",function(responseCode, responseBody){
+        jsResponse = eval("(" + responseBody +  ")");
+    });
+
+... The following example illustrates a more complex use-case POSTing parameters to a CGI process on a server...
+
+    http.request({ url: "http://pixenate.com/pixenate/pxn8.pl",
+                   method: "POST",
+                   params: {script: "[]"}
+                 }, function( responseCode, responseBody){
+          var jsObj = eval("(" + responseBody + ")");
+      });
+
 Utilities Module
 ================
 Miscellaneous utility functions and classes to help with programming.
diff --git a/src/main/javascript/http/request.js b/src/main/javascript/http/request.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3d25136
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/javascript/http/request.js
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+/*************************************************************************
+http.request() function
+====================
+The http.request() function will fetch a web address asynchronously (on a
+separate thread)and pass the URL's response to a callback function
+which will be executed synchronously (on the main thread).  In this
+way, http.request() can be used to fetch web content without blocking the
+main thread of execution.
+
+Parameters
+----------
+
+ * request: The request details either a plain URL e.g. "http://scriptcraft.js/sample.json" or an object with the following properties...
+
+   - url: The URL of the request.
+   - method: Should be one of the standard HTTP methods, GET, POST, PUT, DELETE (defaults to GET).
+   - params: A Javascript object with name-value pairs. This is for supplying parameters to the server.
+
+ * callback: The function to be called when the Web request has completed. This function takes the following parameters...
+   - responseCode: The numeric response code from the server. If the server did not respond with 200 OK then the response parameter will be undefined.
+   - response: A string (if the response is of type text) or object containing the HTTP response body.
+
+Example
+-------
+The following example illustrates how to use http.request to make a request to a JSON web service and evaluate its response...
+
+    var jsResponse;
+    http.request("http://scriptcraftjs.org/sample.json",function(responseCode, responseBody){
+        jsResponse = eval("(" + responseBody +  ")");
+    });
+
+... The following example illustrates a more complex use-case POSTing parameters to a CGI process on a server...
+
+    http.request({ url: "http://pixenate.com/pixenate/pxn8.pl",
+                   method: "POST",
+                   params: {script: "[]"}
+                 }, function( responseCode, responseBody){
+          var jsObj = eval("(" + responseBody + ")");
+      });
+
+***/
+var http = http || {};
+
+http.request = function( request, callback)
+{
+    var paramsToString = function(params){
+        var result = "";
+        var paramNames = [];
+        for (var i in params){
+            paramNames.push(i);
+        }
+        for (var i = 0;i < paramNames.length;i++){
+            result += paramNames[i] + "=" + encodeURI(params[paramNames[i]]);
+            if (i < paramNames.length-1)
+                result += "&";
+        }
+        return result;
+    };
+    
+    server.scheduler.runTaskAsynchronously(__plugin,function() 
+    {
+        var url, paramsAsString, conn, requestMethod;
+        if (typeof request === "string"){
+            url = request;
+            requestMethod = "GET";
+        }else{
+            paramsAsString = paramsToString(request.params);
+            requestMethod = request.method || "GET";
+            if (requestMethod == "GET" && request.params){
+                // append each parameter to the URL
+                url = request.url + "?" + paramsAsString;
+            }
+        }
+        conn = new java.net.URL(url).openConnection();
+        conn.requestMethod = requestMethod;
+        conn.doOutput = true;
+        conn.instanceFollowRedirects = false;
+
+        if (conn.requestMethod == "POST"){
+            conn.doInput = true;
+            // put each parameter in the outputstream
+            conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"); 
+            conn.setRequestProperty("charset", "utf-8");
+            conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Length", "" + paramsAsString.length);
+            conn.useCaches =false ;
+            wr = new java.io.DataOutputStream(conn.getOutputStream ());
+            wr.writeBytes(paramsAsString);
+            wr.flush();
+            wr.close();
+        }
+        var rc = conn.responseCode;
+        var response;
+        var stream;
+        if (rc == 200){
+            stream = conn.getInputStream();
+            response = new java.util.Scanner(stream).useDelimiter("\\A").next();
+        }
+        server.scheduler.runTask(__plugin,function(){
+            callback(rc,response);
+        });
+    });
+};