Getting message "Could not load properties; nested exception" when starting webapp

I'm getting the following error message when I try to start a spring web application:

2012-04-12 13:53:20,491 ERROR [org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet] - 



Context initialization failed

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanInitializationException: Could not load properties; nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: class path resource [timex-servlet.properties] cannot be opened because it does not exist

java.io.FileNotFoundException: class path resource [timex-servlet.properties] cannot be opened because it does not exist

    at org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource.getInputStream(ClassPathResource.java:137)

    at org.springframework.core.io.support.PropertiesLoaderSupport.loadProperties(PropertiesLoaderSupport.java:172)

I'm running Tomcat (version 6.x) through eclipse. I tried putting timex-servlet.properties in the following directories but to no avail:

WebContent\WEB-INF

WebContent\WEB-INF\classes

WebContent\

Here is the reference to timex-servlet.properties in timex-servlet.xml:

    <bean id="placeholderConfig"

    class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">

    <property name="location"

        value="timex-servlet.properties" />

</bean>

There are several SO threads dealing with the same message that say to put a classpath: in front of the properties file reference. So I tried the following, which also did not work:

        <bean id="placeholderConfig"

    class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">

    <property name="location"

        value="classpath:timex-servlet.properties" />

</bean>