PHP/MySQL Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE

I am new to web programming and I am testing my first PHP/MySQL data request from HTML.

I am already getting the following parsing error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE......on line 7.

The simple code is as follows:

<? php

    $pwd = $_POST['password'];
    $dbn = $_POST['dbname'];
    $hnm = $_POST['hostname'];

    $link_id = mysql_connect($hnm,$dbn,$pwd);       // this is line 7 where I am getting the error
    if (isset($link_id))
    {
    $result = mysql_list_dbs($link_id);
    echo $result;
    mysql_select_db("hppumps",$link_id);
    $result = mysql_list_tables("hppumps",$link_id);
    echo $result;
    $result = mysql_list_fields("hppumps","models");
    echo $result;
    $rows = mysql_affected_rows($result);
    if ($rows<1) {echo "Error.  The record was not added to the database.";}
    else {echo "$rows record(s) has been added to the database.";}
    }
    else
    {
    echo "Error.  You were unable to connect to the MySql database";
    }
?>

ANY HELP WITH THIS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED !