PHP tags in posts are being split

If this somehow comes out as a repeat I apologize. I posted this once, and it appeared that it took seeing as I had been given a link to the RSS for it and the ability to make it a favorite. But for the life of me I cannot seem to find it anywhere. So I am posting again. If this is a problem, moderators/admins, do what you will.

Let me preface this by saying that I have several WordPress plugins activated:

• Akismet 2.0
• del.icio.us widget 1.0
• Google Search widget 1.0
• PJW WP Cache Inspect 0.5
• Sidebar Widgets 1.2.1.20070210b
• Tiger Style Administration 3.0
• WP-ShortStat 1.3
• WP-Syntax 0.5.2

Whenever I make a post that uses an opening PHP code tag (<?php) wordpress seems to split the tag between the < and the ?. I turned off all plugins and the condition still exists. I have tested this in Firefox 2, IE6 and Opera 9 and it happens in all of these useragents.

I am wanting to use the WP-Syntax plugin to highlight various code snippets (which works as expected, no complaints about the plugin), however, WordPress adding a space between the < and ? means that any user of the code snippets on my blog have to edit the snippet before using it.

Does anyone know how I might go about disabling this ‘feature’? Or is this something that I will be stuck with?

Example of what I am talking about