Elements just before/after the current one

  Hello!

  I have a problem, as you can guess. I am struggling to find the element
  that is just before, and the element just after the current one.

  What i am doing now for the element after the current one is :
     following-sibling::*[position() = 1]
  And this seems to work. But for the element just before, i tried
     following-sibling::*[last()]
  but this gives me the first (topmost) item instead of the last !
  So i debugged with :

	<xsl:variable name="prevcount">
		<xsl:value-of select="count(preceding-sibling::*)" />
	</xsl:variable>
	<xsl:for-each select="preceding-sibling::*">
		<xsl:element name="before">	
			<xsl:value-of select="."/> <!-- or name() -->
			<xsl:value-of select="position()"/>
			<xsl:if test="position() = $prevcount">
				selected
			</xsl:if>
		</xsl:element>
	</xsl:for-each>

  And the "selected" text appears right next to the good element.
  Then i tried the following to sum it up :

	<xsl:variable name="prevcount">
		<xsl:value-of select="count(preceding-sibling::*)" />
	</xsl:variable>
	<xsl:value-of select="preceding-sibling::*[position() = $prevcount]" />

  But again, it give me the content of the first (topmost) node !!
  What am i doing wrong ?! Is there a simpler way to get these "special" items ?

  Any help would be greatly appreciated !
  Nicolas