is variablelist.max.termlength ignored?

Hi,
it seems like the parameter <xsl:param
name="variablelist.max.termlength">24</xsl:param> is being ignored in
FO output. Alternatively, the calculation of the width of the term
elements themselves might be incorrect. The problem term is
"ERR_NUMOFCARDS" in Verdana 10pt.

I'm not using any of the 4 higher prioritized methods for setting the
term width. I do however have variablelist.as.table="0".

Adding a dbfo PI to the specific variablelist with an explicit
term-width (of 10em) works and solves my immediate problem, but since
our documents frequently use variablelists, manual tuning for each
list is not an option.

I use the DocBook 5.0 stylesheets shipped with oXygen 10.0

Best regards,
Bergfrid Skaara