[Inkscape-user] inkscape bucket fill?

hello everyone,

i've been dabbling with svg cartoons. i've been scanning black and white line drawings and converting them to svgs with the trace bitmap tool. i then colour them in by drawing blocks of colour and lowering them behind the outline. this is an incredibly time consuming way of doing things and i was wondering if there is a quicker way of doing it that i'm missing.

i've tried exporting to a bitmap, using the gimp to bucket fill the gaps and then tracing it back to an svg again, but it's not the most elegant way of working.

is there some kind of tool in inkscape equivalent to the bucket fill tool in gimp?

thanks. john michaelson.