Unfortunately, with standard XSLT 1.0: no, this is not possible.
In XSLT 2.0, the return value of a template can be used as input to another template; therefore, upgrading to XSLT 2.0 (which is easier to work with on many other fronts) will solve this limitation for you.
node-set: , , , , : . http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/07/16/nodeset.html .