Neutralize <P>?

I present data from a database that is continously fed with data from a big
variety of sources. Many of these sources add extra unwanted formating to
the data.

The problem is mainly the HTML <P> (paragraph) and the visual presentation
of <P>. As far as I can see it is represented like "<br><br>" and adds a
blank line between the text it is inserted between... (which defines a
paragraph :-)

If I fast could neutralize the effect the tag <P> has (like redefining it in
the style section...)... I could then focus on fixing the source problem
later...


...to sum it up:
 How do I get the <p> tag to not act like it does? It should not have any
visual presentation...



 <author name="Jarle Handeland" email="jarle.handeland@capgemini.no"
location="Sandnes, Norway" code="10-4">