In article 
<shaun.roe-A3593D.13455602112005@n...>,
 shaun roe <shaun.roe@w...> wrote:

it probably bad form to answer your own question, but I think this will 
do it:

<!-- serializing the embedded xml into a string -->
  <xsl:template name="serialize">
    <xsl:param name="nodeset"/>
    <!-- openstarttag, openendtag, closetag markers, and close empty tag 
marker -->
    <xsl:variable name="ot" select="'&lt;'"/>
    <xsl:variable name="oet" select="'&lt;/'"/>
    <xsl:variable name="ct" select="'&gt;'"/>
    <xsl:variable name="cet" select="'/&gt;'"/>
    <xsl:for-each select="$nodeset">
      <xsl:variable name="n" select="name()"/>
      <xsl:variable name="value" select=".[not(./*)]"/>
      <xsl:variable name="attributes">
        <xsl:for-each select="./@*">
          <xsl:call-template name="serializeAttribute"/>
        </xsl:for-each>
      </xsl:variable>
      <xsl:choose>
        <xsl:when test="empty(.)">
          <xsl:value-of select="concat($ot,$n,$attributes,$cet,$LF)"/>
        </xsl:when>
        <xsl:otherwise>
          <xsl:value-of select="concat($ot,$n,$attributes,$ct,$value)"/>
          <xsl:call-template name="serialize">
            <xsl:with-param name="nodeset" select="./*"/>
          </xsl:call-template>
          <xsl:value-of select="concat($oet,$n,$ct,$LF)"/>
        </xsl:otherwise>
      </xsl:choose>
    </xsl:for-each>
  </xsl:template>
  <!--serialize one attribute -->
  <xsl:template name="serializeAttribute">
    <xsl:variable name="q" select="'&quot;'"/>
    <xsl:variable name="an" select="name()"/>
    <xsl:variable name="av" select="."/>
    <xsl:value-of select="concat(' ',$an,'=',$q,$av,$q)"/>
  </xsl:template>