Urxvt ignoring '*background' Xresource?

[Andrea Remondini]

Hello! I've tried rxvt-unicode v9.17 inside CDE, and I've noticed that
urxvt ignores a generic (classless) '*background' setting within my
Xresources, falling back to a white background instead.

Example screen-shot:
	http://www.andrearemondini.com/pub/img/urxvt_cde_mismatch.png

Is this a conscious implementation choice or just an oversight? 

Thanks in advance,
A.R.