collect elements into variable and apply-templates

Hi,
I need to collect some elements from a document into a
variable and then apply-templates the the resulting variable:

Example:
XSL
===
<xsl:template match="doc">
  <xsl:variable name="a">
    <xsl:for-each select="xxx/*">
        <xsl:copy-of select="."/>
    </xsl:for-each>
  </xsl:variable>

  <!-- ILLEGAL -->
  <xsl:apply-templates select="$a"/>

</xsl:template>

XML
===
<doc>
    <xxx>
     <item> test1 </item>
    </xxx>
    <xxx>
      <item>test5</item>
    </xxx>
</doc>
this results in:
(Location of error unknown)XSLT Error (org.apache.xpath.XPathException):
 Can not convert #RTREEFRAG to a NodeList!

Does anyone have an idea how can I solve this problem?

thanks for any help.

Rui


-- 
Rui Alberto L. Gonçalves <rui-l-goncalves@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
PT Inovação


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