[ZPT] Why does this cause a page template to be invalid? (longish)

[Phil Harris]

I have a PageTemplate with this content:

<span metal:use-macro="here/ASPIRE_MainTemplate/macros/ASPIRE_mainMacro">
<span metal:fill-slot="ASPIRE_mainbody">
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><span
class="s-ASPIRE-1">
<table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 align=left>
 <tr>
  <td width=37 height=0></td>
  <td width=113></td>
  <td width=28></td>
  <td width=69></td>
  <td width=284></td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
  <td height=25></td>
  <td colspan=2 rowspan=2 width=141 height=39 align=left valign=top
  bgcolor=white class="s-ASPIRE-2"><span class="s-ASPIRE-3">
  <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%">
   <tr>
    <td>
    <div v:shape="_x0000_s1026" class="s-ASPIRE-4"
    class=shape>
    <p class=MsoNormal>This is floating</p>
    </div>
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>
  </span>&nbsp;</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
  <td height=14></td>
  <td></td>
  <td rowspan=2 align=left valign=top><img width=284 height=122
  src="./doc2/image001.gif" alt="Your Text Here"
v:shapes="_x0000_s1028"></td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
  <td height=108></td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
  <td height=9></td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
  <td height=97></td>
  <td></td>
  <td colspan=2 align=left valign=top><img width=97 height=97
  src="./doc2/image002.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_s1027"></td>
 </tr>
</table>
</span>&nbsp;</p>
</div>
</span>
</span>

The error message is:

Compilation failed
TAL.HTMLTALParser.NestingError: Open tag <span> does not match close tag
</p>, at line 48, column 14

OK, well removing the <p> start and end tags fixes the problem, but why
should there be an error in the first place?

AFAICS there is no mismatch in the tags.

tia

Phil