Custom widget to display specific article category

Hello i have a custom widget and i have placed my own code in it to display articles from a specific category but it doesn’t work.

Here is my code

<div class="latestNews">

<?php query_posts('cat=529&showposts=2'); ?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
  <div class="postContent" > 

<h3 class="storytitle"><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
<?php echo get_the_excerpt(); ?>

</div>

<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

</div>

Any help will be appreciated.

Regards

Nicos