newbie question

Hi there!
My requirement is to define a variable depending on the mode - edit or create.
What I am doing is:

          <xsl:variable name="uContact"><xsl:value-of 
select="//request/param[(_at_)name='email']"/></xsl:variable>
<xsl:if test="//request/param[(_at_)name='action']='Edit'">
	<xsl:variable name="uContact><xsl:value-of 
select="./selection/email"/></xsl:variable>

And I must be able to use the above defined value in a table
 <tr>
    <td>Contact:</td>
   <td><input type="text" name="email" size="25" maxlength="25" 
value="{$uContact"/></td>
 </tr>

My problem is the variavle I have defined in if statement is not visible to 
the table.
Is there any way I can just declare a variable somewhere and assign a value 
to it where ever I want??
Ex:  var x= "";
      if (.....)
        x="I am in if";
      else
        x="i am in else";

I am not a xslt person and really struggling over this seemingly simply 
thing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
-M



XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list