hierarchical lists

Hi!

I'd like to generate hierarchical lists from source:

<ul>
<li>topic 1</li>
<ul>
    <li>subtopic 1</li>
    <li>subtopic 2</li>
    <ul>
        <li>subsubtopic 1</li>
    </ul>
</ul>
<li>topic 2</li>
</ul>

to

* topic 1 
   + subtopic 1 
   + subtopic 2 
      - subsubtopic 1 
* topic 2 

but I don't know how to add margin-left or padding-left for a deeper
topic than the first level!? Thank you for help! :)

Torsten