Tables just expand to take whatever width and height they need; you can set minimum widths and heights but 100% doesn't always work, as you have discovered. You can achieve what you want with div boxes, see:-
http://www.wickham43.supanet.com/for...ott070918.html
There is a skyblue main container and I have put in a pink inner container as you had an inner table but it isn't really needed and it doesn't show because the left and right divs fill it completely. It does however centralise inside the main container as it is 50px less wide.
Code downloaded to my PC will be deleted in due course.
WIN7; IE9, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari for Windows; screen resolution usually 1366*768.
Also IE6 on W98 with 800*600 and IE8 on Vista 1440*900.