[exim] Exim Options Slow

I am setting up a new exim mail server and have an unexpected
problem. There are two symptoms:

1) Sending mail is slow to initiate from clients.
2) Most surprisingly... exim command line options are slow to
respond. exim -bp and others take about 25 - 30 seconds to show any
results. However, exim -bV is quick as can be.

I have set rfc1413_query_timeout=0s to no avail.
I'm not doing any host_lookup at the moment.

Any ideas or pointers to a resolution would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Eric