CSS in XML format ?

I would like to do convert strict XHTML + CSS documents to some other format using XSLT. In order to do so, interpreting the stylesheet information during this transformation is essential.Unfortunately, the CSS syntax is very hard (to use a euphemism) to interpret with XSLT.

Is there an initiative to have CSS use XML syntax ? I understand that when CSS 1 was first proposed by Bos & Lie XML was not around, but why not plan a transition towards XML syntax ? 

P. Andries