[R] R can't load a large dataset

[Francesco Sarracino]

Dear R listers,

I have a silly problem. I am trying to load a dta (Stata) file in R.
The dta is about 650 MB and contains the integrated World Values
Survey/ European Value Study data-set.
My problem is that I don't manage to load the file. After almost 1
hour I issued the following command:
data <- read.dta("http://www.stata-press.com/data/kkd/data1.dta",
  convert.dates = TRUE, convert.factors = TRUE,
      missing.type = FALSE,
      convert.underscore = FALSE, warn.missing.labels = TRUE)

I still don't have my data loaded. Moreover, my system becomes very
slow and not responsive.
I can't figure out what is going on.
Here you are my specs:
Ubuntu Linux 11.10 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
Intel Core i7, 4 GB RAM, 367 GB Free HD, 8 GB swap memory
R:
R version 2.14.1 (2011-12-22)

Can you please help me figuring out what's wrong? I think it's
impossible that R can't handle files of similar sizes.
Thanks a lot,
f.