Seems Google has changed the wording on the link building page of Webmaster Help Center, according to thread over at Webmaster World.
It is interesting that Google is now stating that excessive reciprocal links are bad, not all recip links! The information at Google can be read here.
If this is a change in attitude I will be finding out next week. Or has this always been the case, which I tend to believe – as I have seen recip links being counted.