css and image folder not working

[eluser]vickatg[/eluser]
i am really new to codeigniter, i am currently facing a problem on how to load my css and images files. i have tried to read what others did in the ci forum but i stilled failed. please assist me where i might be going wrong.

my current directory structure is

/meeting
-system
-application
-css
-images
-javascript
-.htaccess
-index.php

my .htaccess file is as follows

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|javascript|css|images|robots\.txt)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ ./index.php/$1 [L]

below is how i am loading my css

<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo base_url();?>css/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />

in my view file.

i am also loading the url helper

yet My css/images is not loading. i ma frustrated help me out please