How to set up static IP in 12.04 and avoid these start-up delays?

[Chris Green]

I have just upgraded a little server system from Ubuntu Server 10.04 to
Ubuntu Server 12.04, the upgrade went fairly smoothly and it's basically
all working OK.

However there is a very annoying delay has appeared in the boot
sequence, while the moving dots display during startup two messages
appear:-

    Waiting for network configuration...
    [waits for 40 seconds]
    Waiting up to 60 more seconds for network configuration...
    [waits for 60 secodns]

... and then the system finally starts up.

These delays are in the /etc/init/failsafe.conf script and seem to
happen even when the system is properly configured for static IP in
/etc/network/interfaces. 

Is there any way I can configure things so they don't happen (apart from
bodging /etc/init/failsafe.conf which seems the wrong way to do it
really). 

-- 
Chris Green