Positioning previous/next_comments_link

I’m having a really frustrating problem whereby I cannot control the position of the previous_comments_link and next_comments_link.

I’ve tried everything, from divs to tables, wrapping them in <p> and <span> tags but nothing seems to make any difference? They just sit side-by-side outside the flow of all the elements i try.

For example:

print '<table border="1"><tr><td>
		 '.previous_comments_link('&laquo;').'
		 </td><td>'.$cpage.'/'.$ctotal.'</td><td>
		 '.next_comments_link('&raquo;').'
	</td></tr></table>';

I would have thought that this would force everything onto a straight line, but in face the previous and next_comments_link appear outside the table altogether!
This is the result:

<a href="linknotnecessary" >&laquo;</a><a href="linknotnecessary" >&raquo;</a><table border="1"><tr><td>

		 </td><td>3/4</td><td>

	     </td></tr></table>

Anyone know why this is happening????
Thanks for any input/suggestions