Django -- User.DoesNotExist does not exist?

I'm trying to get hold of Django. I use Pydev on Eclipse. I have written a simple signup page that I can't get to work. Eclipse complains that User.DoesNotExist is undefined. Most likely, I am missing something trivial. Here's the relevant portion of the code:

from django.contrib.auth.models import User
...
class SignUpForm (forms.Form):
    ...
    def clean_username (self): 
        try:
            User.objects.get(username=self.cleaned_data['username'])
        except User.DoesNotExist:
            return self.cleaned_data['username']
        raise forms.ValidationError(USERNAME_ALREADY_IN_USE)
    ...