Re: grouping + global variable (?) (was re: regexs,

As for modes, this looks like it'll work, but you might want to consider making phase-1 and phase-2 apply all the way down their own template hierarchies, to prevent them from stepping on each other inadvertently.

<xsl:template ... mode="phase-2">
    <xsl:apply-templates ... mode="phase-2"/>
</xsl:template>

I hope this helps