Problem setting variable in if statement

I am very new to xsl/xslt and have a basic problem.  I am setting a style
sheet color based on a condition.
I'd like the color to be a variable value, like
<xsl:variable name="statColor" select="#33cc33">
and set this variable in the if/choose condtion.
Then recall it like
<span style="color:{$statColor}"><xsl:value-of select="status"></span>


I have it like this now, but want to simplfiy it:

 <xsl:choose>
        <xsl:when test="status='undelivered'"> <span
style="color:#ff0000">  <xsl:value-of select="status"/></span>
</xsl:when>
        <xsl:when test="status='inprogress'"> <span style="color:#33cc33">
 <xsl:value-of select="status"/></span> </xsl:when>
        <xsl:when test="status='delivered'">  <span style="color:#0033ff">
 <xsl:value-of select="status"/></span> </xsl:when>
        <xsl:when test="status='escalated'">  <span style="color:#ffff33">
 <xsl:value-of select="status"/></span> </xsl:when>
        <xsl:otherwise> <span style="color:#000000">  <xsl:value-of
select="status"/></span></xsl:otherwise>
      </xsl:choose>

I cant seem to get it to work.

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