Stopping a job: delay between 'STOPPING' and 'STOPPED'

[Yuval Rikover]

The bottom line: I need the job to be stopped quickly (not just the steps), so
jobLauncher.run(job, jobParameters)
does not block for so long.

And now the details:

I have a simple job set up:

<job id="myJob" restartable="false"
         xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch"
        job-repository="dbJobRepository">
        <step id="myStep">
            <tasklet>
                <chunk reader="myReader"
                       processor="myProcessor"
                       writer="myWriter"
                       commit-interval="100">
                </chunk>
            </tasklet>
        </step>
    </job>

I launch the job inside a container:

class AbstractJob{

public Status run(...){
...        
this.jobParameters = jobParamsBuilder.toJobParameters();
JobExecution jobExecution = jobLauncher.run(job, jobParameters);
BatchStatus batchStatus = jobExecution.getStatus();
if (batchStatus == BatchStatus.COMPLETED) ...
...
}

public void abort(){
...
JobOperator jobOperator = KBeansProvider.getBean("jobOperator");
JobRepository jobRepository = KBeansProvider.getBean("dbJobRepository");
JobExecution jobExecution = jobRepository.getLastJobExecution(this.jobBeanId, this.jobParameters);
try {
jobOperator.stop(jobExecution.getJobId());
}
...
}

The launcher.run() method blocks, as I run in synced mode.
Now, when I abort, I expect the call to return in a reasonable time, as the system is in idle state besides the job.
The step is indeed stopped, as can be seen in the log:

2012-02-12 18:36:14,649 INFO [org.springframework.batch.core.repository.support.SimpleJobRepository] - <Parent JobExecution is stopped, so passing message on to StepExecution>
2012-02-12 18:36:14,653 INFO [org.springframework.batch.core.step.ThreadStepInterruptionPolicy] - <Step interrupted through StepExecution>
2012-02-12 18:36:14,656 ERROR [org.springframework.batch.core.step.AbstractStep] - <Encountered an error executing the step>
org.springframework.batch.core.JobInterruptedException: Job interrupted status detected.
	at org.springframework.batch.core.step.ThreadStepInterruptionPolicy.checkInterrupted(ThreadStepInterruptionPolicy.java:42)
	at org.springframework.batch.core.step.tasklet.TaskletStep$2.doInChunkContext(TaskletStep.java:277)

The batch_step_execution status is set to stopped in a matter of half a minute or so.
The problem is, the job itself is "stuck" in'STOPPING' mode.
Sometimes it gets stopped - but only after an unreasonable time, about 10 minutes, and sometimes it just stays in 'STOPPING' mode.

I also tried calling stop on the JobExecution itself, but it didn't solve it.

Thanks