Bursting a perfect looking template results in duplicated element in col 1

I've already asked this over on OTN but at the request of an Open SR, i'm also posting here. Any help appreciated!
I have a curious case whereby a PDF generated from XML using a RTF template looks fine in Oracle e-Biz and the HTML is perfect. When I burst it, however, the log shows a duplication of the first element in the dynamic cell.

For example:

XML data looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<TOPLEVEL>
<LINE1>Test line1 </LINE1>
<COLUMNHDR>
<COLUMN1 width = "32">Set of Books</COLUMN1>
</COLUMNHDR>
<COLUMNHDR>
<COLUMN1 width = "7">Period</COLUMN1>
</COLUMNHDR>
<COLUMNHDR>
<COLUMN1 width = "11">Open Date</COLUMN1>
</COLUMNHDR>
<COLUMNHDR>