Passing properties between SOAPUI and JUNIT.

Hello,
I am trying to pass properties between Junit and SOAPUI (in both directions) with little success. I wrote the follwing code in JUNIT to try to modify the TestStep Properties: ( NOTE: I also have a SOAPUI TestCase with a testStep called "Properties)

 WsdlProject project = new WsdlProject("soapui-project.xml");
      com.eviware.soapui.model.testsuite.TestSuite testSuite = project.getTestSuiteByName( "TestSuite1" ); 
      com.eviware.soapui.model.testsuite.TestCase testCase = testSuite.getTestCaseByName( "TestCase1" );
      TestStep ts = testCase.getTestStepByName("Properties");
      ts.setPropertyValue("Prop", "whatever");  // Set the property Prop.
      // create empty properties and run synchronously
      com.eviware.soapui.model.testsuite.TestRunner runner = testCase.run( new PropertiesMap(), false ); 
      TestStep ts2 = testCase.getTestStepByName("Properties");
      String outProp=ts2.getPropertyValue("Prop")
      .................

I also tried to directly access to the properties via the testcase (String prop=testCase.getPropertyValue("Prop"); ) but with no success.

How is it possible to pass properties from Junit testcase to SOAPUI and vice versa ?

Thanks.