Tile Customizations

[mtoon]

I've been customizing the MainLayout.jsp and i've noticed something odd.  When I change the background  color to anything but white, a single line per left tile is shown, even where there are no content in the tile (i.e. the product image page).  Here's my code.  This will produce a 7 line grey box on the item image page.  Any thoughts?

My MainLayout.jsp code:
                        <table bgcolor="#EEEEEE" cellborder="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
                           <tr><td><tiles:insert attribute="leftTile1" /></td></tr>
                           <tr><td><tiles:insert attribute="leftTile2" /></td></tr>
                           <tr><td><tiles:insert attribute="leftTile3" /></td></tr>
                           <tr><td><tiles:insert attribute="leftTile4" /></td></tr>
                           <tr><td><tiles:insert attribute="leftTile5" /></td></tr>
                           <tr><td><tiles:insert attribute="leftTile6" /></td></tr>
                           <tr><td><tiles:insert attribute="leftTile7" /></td></tr>
                        </table>

this translates to:
                        <table bgcolor="#EEEEEE" cellborder="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
                           <tr><td>

</td></tr>
                           <tr><td>

</td></tr>
                           <tr><td>

</td></tr>
                           <tr><td>

</td></tr>
                           <tr><td>

</td></tr>
                           <tr><td>

</td></tr>
                           <tr><td>

</td></tr>
                        </table>

Is there anyway that <tiles:insert> can not put a CRLF in?  I think that's what's causing the problem.

Thank you!