help - any ideas?

i have an xml file where the user inputs content, but the xml automatically
embeds paragraph tags around the content.

	<p>this is what the user inputs</p>

then when my presentation file transforms it, an extra pair of paragraph tags
is generated as a result, which causes the gif file to appear on a separate
line:

	<p class="last"><p>this is what the user inputs</p><img
src="images/arrowRight.gif" alt="" width="8" height="8" title=""></p>

xsl used:

<p class="last"><xsl:apply-templates select="user_input"/>
		<img src="/public/images/arrowRight.gif" alt="" width="8" height="8"
title=""></img>
</p>

how do i parse the only text the user input, stripping the <p> tags to get the
desired result?  do i then need to concatenate with the gif file?

desired result:

	<p class="last">this is what the user inputs<img src="images/arrowRight.gif"
alt="" width="8" height="8" title=""></p>

thanks for your help,
tiffany_blake@xxxxxxx