[xml] copy a chunk into a string

["Kralidis,Tom [Burlington]" <Tom Kralidis ec gc ca>]

Hi,

I'm using libxml2 Version: 2.6.29 on fc7, with the xpath functionality,
to parse an XML document.

I have a situation where I would like to copy a structure at a given node to a string, i.e.:

<person>
 <name>
  <first>foo</first>
  <last>bar</last>
 </name>
</person>

...so I am looking to save "<name><first>foo</first><last>bar</last></name>" to a string.

Are there any functions in libxml2 or approaches anyone can suggest?

Thanks in advance.

..Tom