Unexpected behaviour <repository> settings in POM.xml.

Included a POM file which defines two repositories : a non-existing one and the central M2 repository.

There is no local settings file ~/.m2/setting.xml and the complete folder ~/.m2/repository/junit is deleted.

Now if I run 'maven install', I get the following :

$mvn install
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Maven Quick Start Archetype
[INFO] task-segment: [install]
[INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downloading: http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/junit/junit/3.8.1/junit-3.8.1.pom
145b downloaded
[INFO] [resources:resources]
[INFO] Using default encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] [compiler:compile]
[INFO] No sources to compile
[INFO] [resources:testResources]
[INFO] Using default encoding to copy filtered resources.
Downloading: http://blieblie/junit/junit/3.8.1/junit-3.8.1.jar
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Failed to resolve artifact.

Error transferring file
junit:junit:jar:3.8.1

from the specified remote repositories:
central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2),
mybidonrepo (http://blieblie)
Path to dependency:
1) testgroup:testartifact:jar:1.0-SNAPSHOT
2) junit:junit:jar:3.8.1

Caused by I/O exception: Server returned HTTP response code: 503 for URL: http://blieblie/junit/junit/3.8.1/junit-3.8.1.jar

[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] For more information, run Maven with the -e switch
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 17 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Thu Oct 26 18:53:06 CEST 2006
[INFO] Final Memory: 3M/6M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Questions:
1. Is it normal that retrieving the artifact (jar) completely fails the build? M2 could still try to connect to
http://repo1.maven.org/maven2 to retrieve the artifact.
2. why is the POM file directly retrieved from http://repo1.maven.org/maven2 (no attempt to retrieve it from http://blieblie)?