How to convert a whold result tree to a string?

Suppose I have a result tree like
<test>
<test1> kkkk</tes1>
<test2 attr="kkkk"/>
</test>

Can I store it in a string variable like 
<xsl:template match="test>
<xsl:variable name="str" select="string(.)"/>
</xsl:template>

So whenever I use <xsl:value-of select="$str"/>, it will output
the whole result tree as string. 

Obvioulsy, the code doesn't work because string function only converts 
the first element. 

any ideas?

thanks,
Fengrui 



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