executing a command in xterm and keep interactive

Hi,

I'm trying to automate some processes, where an initial command should run 
inside a xterm, and the xterm kept interactive thereafter (xterm -e ...). 

Since the culprit seem bash, I've tried most ways of invoking bash 
with -i, -s and -c options, but as soon as I give bash the -c option, it 
exits after the command itself, no matter if any of -i or -s is also given, 
which differs from my reading/understanding of related sections in the 
manual.

Has somebody in the kind audience tried to accomplish such a task before and 
want to share the findings? 

TIA,
Pete