Arabic characters and FOP

Hello all,

Can anyone provide some advice on Fop's handling of Arabic characters?

If you open this XML code in internet explorer it gives you a correctly
displayed Arabic word.
<value xml:lang="AR">&#1580;&#1583;&#1608;&#1604;</value>

If I insert the exact Arabic code in my XML and translate the XML into PDF
using FOP, the pdf displays the Arabic characters back to front.

If I then actually reverse the characters:
i.e. <value xml:lang="AR">&#1604;&#1608;&#1583;&#1580;</value>

And re-run the process, although now in the right order the joins between
the characters are lost.

I am using Traditional Arabic embedded within Fop.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Tanz