the_content() and the <p> tag

Hi,

It seems that the_content() function always flanks the contents with <p> tags. I am embedding the text in the_content() within a div but I don’t want the leading <p> tag. Is there anyway to remove the first <p> and </p> tags? I still want to preserve the paragraph breaks within the text however,

Can this be done?

Thanks,

Garry