position() affected by xsl:strip-space

This thread originated from postings to fop-users list and it deranged.... The problem that
emerged was the following: position() seems to give results (which seem wrong) according
to the presence or absence of xsl:strip-space, but maybe someone can exaplain.
I've used for these examples saxonb 8, fop 0.20.5, j2se 1.4.2, winxp pro.

One example, fortest3 produces the desired results. It contains xsl:strip-space, and the xml
contains line-feeds which are removed by it. (There are no xsl:text elements).
The second example, fortest3b, doesn't. It does not contain xsl:strip-space, nor the xml
contains line feeds. So what's its issue? Might this be a bug?

Cinzia
p.s. see code below (xml, xsl, 'output pdf') for both fortest3 and fortest3b.


-- contains <xsl:strip-space elements="*" />  --
-- filtered by "position() mod 2 =1"   --
=============
fortest3 pdf output
=============
India, 1                  UK
USA , 3                 Canada
Australia , 5

-- omits <xsl:strip-space elements="*" />    --
-- not filtered because I'd get an empty output, so just print all
for testing and what I find out? position() is always even, why escapes me ;) --
==============
fortest3b pdf output
==============
India, 2                  UK
UK , 4                   USA
USA , 6                 Canada
Canada , 8             Australia
Australia , 10


========
fortest3.xml
========
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<genericSiteDoc>
 <cityInstal>India</cityInstal>
 <cityInstal> UK </cityInstal>
 <cityInstal> USA </cityInstal>
 <cityInstal> Canada </cityInstal>
 <cityInstal> Australia </cityInstal>
</genericSiteDoc>

========
fortest3.xsl
========
<xsl:strip-space elements="*" />

   <xsl:template match="genericSiteDoc">
     <fo:root font-family="Verdana" font-size="6pt" color="#666666">
        <fo:layout-master-set>
          <fo:simple-page-master master-name="A4Portrait" page-height="29.7cm" page-width="21cm">
          <fo:region-body margin="1cm" region-name="body"/>
        </fo:simple-page-master>
      </fo:layout-master-set>
      <fo:page-sequence master-reference="A4Portrait">
        <fo:flow flow-name="body">
          <fo:block text-align="left">
          <fo:table table-layout="fixed" width="254pt">
            <fo:table-column column-width="127pt"/>
            <fo:table-column column-width="127pt"/>
            <fo:table-body>
              <xsl:apply-templates/>
            </fo:table-body>
          </fo:table>
          </fo:block>
        </fo:flow>
      </fo:page-sequence>
    </fo:root>
  </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="cityInstal">
    <xsl:if test="position() mod 2 =1">
      <fo:table-row>
        <fo:table-cell><fo:block><xsl:value-of select="." />,
          <xsl:value-of select="position()"/></fo:block></fo:table-cell>
        <fo:table-cell><fo:block><xsl:value-of select="following-sibling::cityInstal[1]" /></fo:block></fo:table-cell>
      </fo:table-row>
    </xsl:if>
   </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

=========
fortest3b.xml
=========
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<genericSiteDoc>
 <cityInstal>India</cityInstal><cityInstal> UK </cityInstal><cityInstal> USA </cityInstal><cityInstal> Canada
</cityInstal><cityInstal> Australia </cityInstal>
</genericSiteDoc>

=========
fortest3b.xsl
=========
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

   <xsl:template match="genericSiteDoc">
     <fo:root font-size="6pt" color="#666666">
        <fo:layout-master-set>
          <fo:simple-page-master master-name="A4Portrait" page-height="29.7cm" page-width="21cm">
          <fo:region-body margin="1cm" region-name="body"/>
        </fo:simple-page-master>
      </fo:layout-master-set>
      <fo:page-sequence master-reference="A4Portrait">
        <fo:flow flow-name="body">
          <fo:block text-align="left">
          <fo:table table-layout="fixed" width="254pt">
            <fo:table-column column-width="127pt"/>
            <fo:table-column column-width="127pt"/>
            <fo:table-body>
              <xsl:apply-templates/>
            </fo:table-body>
          </fo:table>
          </fo:block>
        </fo:flow>
      </fo:page-sequence>
    </fo:root>
  </xsl:template>

   <xsl:template match="cityInstal">
      <fo:table-row>
        <fo:table-cell><fo:block><xsl:value-of select="." />,
          <xsl:value-of select="position()"/></fo:block></fo:table-cell>
        <fo:table-cell><fo:block><xsl:value-of select="following-sibling::cityInstal[1]" /></fo:block></fo:table-cell>
      </fo:table-row>
   </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>