[xsl] Eliminating leading zeros

["Mark Wilson" <drmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In order to sort item numbers with <xsl:sort> properly and prevent the 
sorted ouptput order of 1, 10, 100, 2, 3 and so on, I left pad the numbers 
with leading zeros: 001,002, 003, 010, 100 ....
so that I get 001, 002, 003, 010, 100 ... when I run a ascii sort [other 
elements are also sorted, so I cannot drop the ascii sort].

I have been trying to figure out how to kill the leading zero after the sort 
and before printing the output to either an xml or xhtml document. That is, 
after the sort, when I output the sorted

<item>001</item>
... ... ...
<item>100</item>

I would like it to be rendered as

<sortedItem>1</sortedItem>
... ... ...
<sortedItem>100</sortedItem>

I asume this is a common problem but have not a clue where to look in the 
archives.Can someone give me a hint?
Thanks,
Mark