The style
property of a DOM element refers only to the element’s inline styles.
Depending on the browser, you can get the actual style of an element using DOM CSS
In firefox, for example:
var body = document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0];
var bg = window.getComputedStyle(body, null).backgroundColor;
Or in IE:
var body = document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0];
var bg = body.currentStyle.backgroundColor;