href within <area> is supposed to be optional

The HTML validator gives the following error for an <area> element which has
no href=


Validation Output: 1 Error
   Error Line 93, Column 23: Element area is missing required attribute
href.

However, according to the specs, the href is not required.  This is
important since the nohref is now deprecated.

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#attr-hyperlink-href
4.12.2 Links created by a and area elements
The href attribute on *a* and *area* elements must have a value that is a
valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces.
The href attribute on *a* and *area* elements is not required; when those
elements do not have href attributes they do not create hyperlinks.


This is the web page that I used for testing,  I had to use href keywords
with a local URL to pass the validation, although I would have preferred to
have omitted the href.
http://www.scientificpsychic.com/etc/moonmap/moon-map.html

Thanks,

Antonio Zamora