Yeah, you can even do the signing in perl without bitcoind at all if you have the private key(s), I've been crafting/signing raw transactions that way for a while, can probably come up with some sample code if you want. The harder part is finding the transaction inputs for the address...
If you have a sample of perl code to sign a bitcoin transaction with a private key that would be really nice. It would prevent me from reinventing the wheel.
I think the database that bitcoin-abe creates can help me find the unspent inputs for a given address. I may have to adjust the indexes it uses though.