Huge delay with exec or system calls

I have a php web page that calls another php script which in turn calls a expect script which does 'ssh user@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'. If I run from the command line: ie.
> php other.php it takes about 3 seconds to call the expect script and be done. If I click on the submit button - I can see that
it jumps right into "other.php - then somehow eats up another 20 seconds before returning (plus the orig 3 - total=23 seconds). Any ideas?

Thanks
  and if you can give me an answer...
     double thanks  :-)
.

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