mod_rewrite issues

Rules not working

[nsusa]

I am trying to create se-friendly rules for a small link directory I am running on one of my sites. The directory can be accessed as followed:

[my...] domain .com/directory/links.php?ax=list&sub=70&cat_id=70

Now I am using the following rules but I can't just get this to work.

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /directory/

RewriteRule ^category-$1-$2-$3.html /links.php?ax=$1&sub=$2&cat_id=$3 [L]

I am trying to access the site as

[www....] my domain.com/directory/category-1-2-3.html

Any idea what I am doing wrong?

Chris