localization problem with xref elements

Dear all

the version of docbook xml is 4.4
the version of docbook xsl is 1.73.2
(these are not my choice and I dont think I can upgrade as I dont have decisional power for that)

im having some problem with french translation,

a string which is automatically inserted by the xsl transformation is not translated.

the problem is with <xref linkend="xxx" />

I get "the section called “xxx”" instead of the "la section intitulée « xxx »"

the
string "the section called" appear several time in the language xml
files in docbook-xsl-1.73.2 so im not sure which one is used, but the
translation seems to exist for all the ids in the fr.xml

I have tried adding a "lang="fr"" parameter in my <book>
element and also in my <xref> element, but it didnt change
anything

I looked at the list archive, found some related posts but sadly no solution 

any idea ?

Thanks in advance
Best regards
Oliver