> Thinking of it, i wonder about the following:
> Maybe it would be a good idea to have the numeric reference 
> in the target data too. Is there  a possibility to leave the 
> "& # x e 7 ;"
> unchanged and let it appear as "& # x e 7 ;" in the target data too?
> 

That will happen automatically if you choose <xsl:output
encoding="us-ascii"/>

Which is currently being discussed on another thread.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/