ways of place a skype call automatically

I want to place a skype call automatically and I tried different ways:

first I used a api with python which worked for me with an older skype version, after the update it's not working anymore.

then I tried to install a plugin in firefox, set the firefox settings and placed a file in /usr/bin that should call skype number when clicking a skype link. I tried this with calling that skype link with a small script. Not working :(

do you know any other options? I'm using ubuntu 8.10 intrepid

From stackoverflow

• Did you look at the official APIs? There are APIs for COM (not an option on Linux, I guess?) and Java (which you might try).

  And there is also an official Skype API for Python. If that's what you used, and it fails with the new Skype version, I suggest you bug the Skype developers about that.