Avoiding "invalid literal for int()" exception

[aine_canby at yahoo.com]

>>> v = raw_input("Enter: ")
Enter: kjjkj
>>> int(v)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'kjjkj'

In my program I need to be able to enter char strings or int strings on
the command line. Then I use an if-elif structure to establish which is
which. For example -

if uniList[0].lower() in ("e","exit"): # uniList stores a unicode
string origionally taken from stdin
	return
elif uniList[0].lower() in ("h","help"):
	verb.PrintVerb()
elif uniList[0].lower() in ("p","pass"):
	break
elif int(uniList[0]) in range(0,10):
        verb.SetImportance(int(uniList[0]))
        break
else:
        verb.AddNewVerb((uniList[0])

How could I avoid the ValueError exception if uniList[0] == "Åker"? I
was thinking of having something like -

formatError = False
try:
      iVal = int(uniList[0])
      if iVal not in range range(0,10):
            formatError = True
catch ValueError:
      iVal = -1

if uniList[0].lower() in ("e","exit"): # uniList stores a unicode
string origionally taken from stdin
	return
elif uniList[0].lower() in ("h","help"):
	verb.PrintVerb()
elif uniList[0].lower() in ("p","pass"):
	break
elif iVal != -1 and not formatError:
        verb.SetImportance(iVal)
        break
elif not formatError:
        verb.VerbEntered((uniList[0])
else:
        print "Enter numbers between 0 and 10..."

 Is this the correct way to do this in your opinion? Sorry, I'm totally
new to python and exceptions.

Thanks,

Aine.