attribute management

All,

 I've run into some difficulty attempting to define an attribute.  
Essentially, I'm getting excess spaces, and I'd really like them removed 
while keeping the formatting the same for readability.  Below is a sample 
xml and xslt.
 Essentially, I'm trying to setup a 'default' set of options at the top of 
the xml file, and then specifics are found under the icon tags below.
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Brian

XML:

<content>
 <uri>
   <dir>./pics</dir>
   <root>btn</root>
   <img_ext>gif</img_ext>
   <link_ext>html</link_ext>
 </uri>
 <target>body</target>
 <icon id="cont_mot">
   <text>Motivation</text>
   <uri><root>mot</root></uri>
 </icon>
 <icon id="cont_req">
   <text>Requirements</text>
   <uri><root>req</root></uri>
 </icon>
</content>


XSLT:

 <xsl:template name="uri">
   <xsl:attribute name="background">
     <xsl:choose>
       <xsl:when test="./uri/dir">
         <xsl:value-of select="./uri/dir" />
       </xsl:when>
       <xsl:otherwise>
         <xsl:value-of select="/content/uri/dir" />
       </xsl:otherwise>
     </xsl:choose>/

     <xsl:choose>
       <xsl:when test="./uri/root">
         <xsl:value-of select="./uri/root" />
       </xsl:when>
       <xsl:otherwise>
         <xsl:value-of select="/content/uri/root" />
       </xsl:otherwise>
     </xsl:choose>.

     <xsl:choose>
       <xsl:when test="./uri/img_ext">
         <xsl:value-of select="./uri/img_ext" />
       </xsl:when>
       <xsl:otherwise>
         <xsl:value-of select="/content/uri/img_ext" />
       </xsl:otherwise>
     </xsl:choose>
   </xsl:attribute>
 </xsl:template>




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