using variable in mode attribute

Hi All,

I have the following code which does not work.
if I replace the mode="$BID" with mode="id1" in line 4, it works.
so my question is 
does the mode attribute take a variable?
if it does not, what should I do?
xml:
<A>
        <B ID="id1"/>
</A>
xsl:
        <xsl:template match="A">
                <xsl:for-each select="B">
                        <xsl:variable name="BID" select="@ID"/>
                        <xsl:apply-templates select="self::B" mode="$BID"/>
                </xsl:for-each>
        </xsl:template>

        <xsl:template match="B" mode="id1">
                whatever
                <xsl:apply-templates select="self::B" mode="table"/>
        </xsl:template>

        <xsl:template match="B" mode="table">
                table
        </xsl:template>

thanks

Long

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