My initial routine is not reliable because I guess the following happens:
1) turn on relay
2) do the job
3) turn off relay -> no AC power is applied
4) the large 2000 uF capacity voltage goes down slowly, i.e below 4V
5) the brown out logic kicks in -> resets the PIC which restarts from begining
6) goto 1) --> AC power is applied again...

will try the END statement as suggested above, otherwise will look at the LM2914 power regulator described in an other post.

Thanks
Eric