Query posts problem

Hi, hoping someone can help me out with this simple problem.

On the sidebar of my site I have a mini loop,

<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<?php the_title(); ?>
<a href='<?php the_permalink() ?>'><?php the_content(); ?></a>
<?php endwhile; ?>

and before that, I have a query post tag.

<?php query_posts('cat=3'); ?>

However, this query posts tag has influence on the main loop on the page aswell.

How can I make it query the mini-loop directly underneath it only, and leave the main loop alone.