> If you do care about namespaces, you can do:
> <xsl:param name="target" as="xs:QName" 
> select="xs:QName('ns:position') />
> 
> <xsl:template match="/root/*[local-name-from-QName($targer) =
> local-name() and namespace-uri-from-QName($target) = 
> namespace-uri()]/child" >....

That seems to be equivalent to

<xsl:template match="/root/*[node-name() = $target]/child" >....

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/