diff --git a/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php b/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
index 6fee26e0..30f9ff55 100644
--- a/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
+++ b/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
@@ -241,7 +241,7 @@ class Smarty_Compiler extends Smarty {
         $rdq = preg_quote($this->right_delimiter, '~');
 
         /* un-hide hidden xml open tags  */
-        $source_content = preg_replace("~<({$ldq}(.*?){$rdq})[?]~s", '< \\1', $source_content);
+        $source_content = preg_replace("~<({$ldq}(.*?){$rdq}\?)~s", '< \\1', $source_content);
 
         // run template source through prefilter functions
         if (count($this->_plugins['prefilter']) > 0) {
@@ -353,15 +353,26 @@ class Smarty_Compiler extends Smarty {
         }
         $compiled_content = '';
 
+        $tmp_id = '{'.md5(uniqid(rand(), true)).'}';
+        
         /* Interleave the compiled contents and text blocks to get the final result. */
         for ($i = 0, $for_max = count($compiled_tags); $i < $for_max; $i++) {
             if ($compiled_tags[$i] == '') {
                 // tag result empty, remove first newline from following text block
                 $text_blocks[$i+1] = preg_replace('~^(\r\n|\r|\n)~', '', $text_blocks[$i+1]);
             }
+            // replace legit PHP tags with placeholder
+            $text_blocks[$i] = str_replace('<?',$tmp_id,$text_blocks[$i]);
+            $compiled_tags[$i] = str_replace('<?',$tmp_id,$compiled_tags[$i]);
+            
             $compiled_content .= $text_blocks[$i].$compiled_tags[$i];
         }
         $compiled_content .= $text_blocks[$i];
+        
+        // escape created php tags        
+        $compiled_content = str_replace('<?',"<?php echo '<?' ?>\n",$compiled_content);
+        // unescape legit tags
+        $compiled_content = str_replace($tmp_id,'<?',$compiled_content);        
 
         // remove \n from the end of the file, if any
         if (strlen($compiled_content) && (substr($compiled_content, -1) == "\n") ) {
@@ -372,9 +383,11 @@ class Smarty_Compiler extends Smarty {
             $compiled_content = "<?php \$this->_cache_serials['".$this->_cache_include."'] = '".$this->_cache_serial."'; ?>" . $compiled_content;
         }
 
+/*        
         // remove unnecessary close/open tags
         $compiled_content = preg_replace('~\?>\n?<\?php~', '', $compiled_content);
-
+*/
+        
         // run compiled template through postfilter functions
         if (count($this->_plugins['postfilter']) > 0) {
             foreach ($this->_plugins['postfilter'] as $filter_name => $postfilter) {