reading a big xls file into R

I have an excel file with ~10000 rows and ~250 columns, currently I am using RODBC to do the importing:

channel <- odbcConnectExcel(xls.file="s:/demo.xls")
demo <- sqlFetch(channel,"Sheet_1")
odbcClose(channel)

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But this way is a bit slow (I need a minute or two to import them), and the excel is originally encrypted, I need to remove the password to work on it, which is something that I prefer not to, I wonder if there is any better way (i.e. import faster, and capable of importing encrypted excel files)

Thanks.

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I recommend to try using the XLConnect package instead of RODBC.

http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/XLConnect/index.html