Avoiding dummy xsl:if with apply-templates

Hello all,

I find myself struggling with a construct I often need: conditionally, "else", 
do something radically different depending on input.

For example:

           <xsl:variable name="el" select="elements" />
            <xsl:if test="count($el)">
                <ul>
                    <xsl:apply-templates select="$el" />
                </ul>
            </xsl:if>

Here, the if statement and variable declaration exists solely to avoid an 
empty ul element; the special condition which occurs when the select misses.

Producing xhtml tables is a similar case. I find these common situations in 
XSLT programming.

These examples can be solved with usual conditional tests, as above, but I 
want to push the conditionalis upon the engine and write with templates; the 
clean, XSLT-like way. AFAICT, this made-up syntax would solve the problem:

<xsl:apply-templates select="elements">
	<ul>
		<xsl:apply/>
	</ul>
</xsl:apply-templates>

Hence, when the select clause fails, the apply-templates body is not entered, 
and the conditionalis is not needed to be manually written and comes 
naturally, even.

What is the proper way of doing what I want? 


Cheers,

		Frans