value-of select="" on source XML while using apply-templates

Hello List,

I have a varible which I iterate using apply-templates.
If I want t select an value from the source XML file, using
value-of select="//XMLDOCUMENT/ELEMENT"
I get nothing back.
While not applying templates inside an variable, I always have full access
to the XML file data.

Does anybody has an idea how to solve this problem?

Thanks!!!