Yum Update fails due to conflicting perl packages

I have a CentOS 5.2 i386 Production box with Qmail, LAMP etc

now since it showed me that it could upgrade to 5.3, i downloaded all the packages using yum update

However, the update fails due to perl packages conflicting

I believe that while installing Qmail, I had tried for Mailscanner and thus it upgraded the per itself

I read somewhere that we can uninstall the conflicting rpms and then go for the upgrade

But, I am about 50 % sure that if I go ahead and uninstall perl, my server will crash like a falling house of cards

Also, perl is needed by variety of packages working including vpopmail etc

Thus, I request anyone to please tell me if we have a safer solution to this

IF there is no solution to this, then can somebody please teach me how to backup and restore Qmail as it is. I can handle the rest of the things

I sincerely appreciate those who have read and even thought about my problem

In anticipation of a solution

Regards

anpcre