public void setItems (String value) throws JspException
  {
    Object obj;

    obj = ExpressionLanguageHelper.evalObject ("items", value, this, pageContext);
    if      (obj instanceof Iterator)
      items = (Iterator) obj;
    else if (obj instanceof Object [])
      items = Arrays.asList ((Object []) obj).iterator ();
    else if (obj instanceof Collection)
      items = ((Collection) obj).iterator ();
    else if (obj instanceof Map)
      items = ((Map) obj).values ().iterator ();
    else
      throw (new IllegalArgumentException ());
  }

This code is always throwing an exception. The list I am trying to process works
fine with forEach.  
I am using tomcat 6 , JSTL 1.2.