controlling digits substitution in IE/FF (Arabic/Hindi/Decimal)

Hey,

In Arabic (and other language) the European Decimal digits can be substitute
by Hindi digit depending the context.

On Windows platform there is a possibility to set the digits substitution
behavior to as follow:
 - Context (the default)
 - None
 - National

(Control Panel -> Regional and Language Setting -> Regional Options ->
Customize)

I'm experiencing differences in the behavior of  Firefox, Chrome, and
Internet Explorer, while displaying digits in pages with dir="RTL" (with
Regional Options set to Arabic(Egypt)):
In Firefox/Chrome the digits are not substituted (European Decimal digits
are displayed)
In IE digits are substituted (Hindi digits are displayed)

Questions:
What is the reason for those behaviour of the different browsers?
Can I control (using CSS or markups) the behaviour? (I cannot expect the
end-user to change his/her setting in the control panel...).

Thanks,
Daniel

-- 
Daniel Goldschmidt
Internationalization and Localization expert
www.locflowtech.com

Office: +972-72-212-2350
Mobile: +41-78-774-6307
Skype: dgoldschmidt


Visit us at www.localizationworld.com