Applets and overlapping menu items

I have written an applet which is positioned centrally on a web page in an IE 6.0 browser. This web page has a windows type menu which was written in JavaScript. My problem is that if my menu drop-down overlaps my applet the menu goes behind the applet. Is it possible to have my menu drop-down on top of the applet ?
I have investigated this using the html div tag and the applet always seems to be on top of the menu drop-down. Is there some property of applets that enables me to paint web browser items on top of the applet ?
Thanking you in advance.