Putting characters in an element

input:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
<al>1. This is some very <emphasis>important</emphasis> tekst.</al>
<al>2. And a second line</al>
<al>And a last line</al>
</root>

Stylesheet:
<xsl:template match="al">
   <xsl:param name="first-string">
       <xsl:value-of select="substring-before(., ' ')"/>
   </xsl:param>

   <xsl:choose>
   <xsl:when test="matches($first-string,'\d')">
       <li>
           <xsl:analyze-string select="." regex="^\d\. ">
             <xsl:matching-substring>
               <nr><xsl:value-of select="."/></nr>
             </xsl:matching-substring>
             <xsl:non-matching-substring>
               <al><xsl:copy-of select="."/>
               </al>
             </xsl:non-matching-substring>
           </xsl:analyze-string>
       </li>
   </xsl:when>
   <xsl:otherwise>
       <al><xsl:copy-of select="descendant::node()"/></al>
   </xsl:otherwise>
   </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>