>    <xsl:value-of select="/LIST/ROWS/ROW[$row]/@$col">

[2] is short for [position()=2] and the abbreviation is triggered
whenever the contents of the [] is of type number, but

$row

is 

   <xsl:variable name="row"><xsl:number/></xsl:variable>


which is of type result tree fragment, which would be coerced to s
a string, but isn't a number. If you use $row in a context where
only a number would be allowed then it would coerce to a number
eg

 [position()=$row] 

or (better) you could make $row into a number rather than a 
result tree fragment containing a root node containing a text node
containing the text of a formatted number by

 <xsl:variable name="row" select="position()"/>

then [$row] would work.

David


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