[xsl] a simple RTF <> XML question

["slacker hacker" <fasterdogs@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've got a project that requires me to read in some RTF documents
(basic stuff, text w/fonts and formating changes) and pass it to a
tool that reads XML and plays with the data.  The XML tool changes a
few things in the document and I need to have a RTF file as the final
output

so
1:  read RTF, convert to XML  (not a problem)
2:  pass XML to tool (not a problem)
3:  get XML result and write XML final version (not a problem)
4:  convert XML back to RTF  (omg is this complicated!)

The basic conversion isn't difficult, but I need to retain all my font
and style attributes from the original RTF.  I understand this
requires the use of XSL, so I need to get an XSLT from the original
RTF > XML conversion and keep that for use in the XML > RTF
conversion. I am trying to wrap my head around XMLT, XSL, FO and
getting more confused by the minute.

So my immeadiate question is:

How do I generate the FO and XSL files necessary for this conversion?
I keep seeing "generate your XSL.."    how?

question 2 is:
Given the simple nature of the transform needed, what tools (unix)
should I be looking at?

thanks
-zaq