Problem with iTunes and sync'n Contacts

I'm a new user to the iPod and iTunes in general. Unfortunately I've encountered a few problems with putting contacts on my iPod. I have the new video 5th generation iPod and Microsoft Outlook 2003, however when I try and sync the contacts to the iPod - iTunes closes with the message 'iTunes has encountered a problem and needs to close'. The error signature offset is '35f76ad2'. I have absolutely no idea what this means.

I have tried manually moving the contacts from Outlook to my iPod but this doesn't take the pictures with it.

I also tried installing a version of iTunes prior to 7.0.0 until I realised my iPod could only use version 7 or later.

Can someone please help - even if it's just contact information for Apple to help me out!