Error 1044 from client machine

[Thomas Jüntgen]

Hello all,

I connect from a client to the MySQL Server and create a database.
I'm logged in with root user. I do the following.

CREATE DATABASE `p_compliance`;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `p_compliance`.`t_item`;
CREATE TABLE `p_compliance`.`t_item` (
`c_source` varchar(10) CHARACTER SET latin1 NOT NULL,
`c_id` varchar(25) CHARACTER SET latin1 NOT NULL,
`n_type` int(3) NOT NULL DEFAULT '1' COMMENT '1=person, 2=company',
PRIMARY KEY (`c_source`,`c_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Now I want to grant privileges to my application user.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON p_compliance.* TO 'appuser'@'%';

Now I get the error message
- 1044 Access denied for user 'root'@'%' to database p_compliance

If I log direct on the server with root I can execute the statement.
Ok the I'm logged in as root@localhost, but how can grant privileges from a client machine?

Thanks for your help
Thomas