As for xsl, I still haven't resolved the problem as
cleanly as I should, the reason being the messy XML that I
have to work with, I'll probably prepare some more complex
samples to show you if you're really interested...

if this problem still bothers you, I'm interested to take a
look at it :-) Maybe the solution involves finding a way to
get the messiness out of the source XML, and only then apply
logic to it.