This bug is fixed in unstable, commit 21d3dbc1ef88701b60aacc700d2cc9fec1a88f8d
which contains three related patches.
The relevant patch is [PATCH] Improve recent files support:
http://archives.seul.org/geda/dev/Jun-2007/msg00149.html
Note that you may have to apply all three patches from the
commit.