adding space in xslt and trimming last space in java-problem

situation:

I have an XML-file that contains a sequence of ids. I need to transform 
this to a String of space separated ids.
So I transform the xml to a text file and after each id-node I add a 
space, like this:
<xsl:template match="*">
   <xsl:for-each select="//ns1:genbankid">
       <xsl:value-of select="text()"/>&#xa0;</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>

but when I try to trim the space of the lastly added id, it refuses to 
do it! My application is in Java:
ids.trim()

does not work. Any suggestions?? In VIM the transformed file shows not a 
space but a capital A with a ^ on top, I assume this is the problem.
what can I use instead of &#xa0;??

remko




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