JavaScript (E4X) - Deleting a target element per id

Environment:  Mozilla/Firefox 2.0; JavaScript 1.7
My Machine: MacBook Pro running OS X (10.4.9)

Greetings:
	My apology if this is the wrong forum.
	I've been searching for a way to allow the user to delete a specific  
xml element/node/property given its ID.

For example:

var pt =
    <periodictable id="0" name="mytable">
         <project id="1" name="myproject"/>
         <information id="2" name="myInfo"/>
         <elements>
	        <element id="3" type="gas">
                        <name id='4'>Helium</name>
                 </element>
		<element id="5" type="solid">
                        <name id="6">Lithium</name>
            </element>
	</elements>
</periodictable>;

Normally you could delete the element 'Helium' like this:

pt.elements.element[0];

However, I want to be able to dynamically delete a node (element) per  
id:

var myID = '3';
delete pt..*.(function::attribute("id")==myID);

But this doesn't work.

Question: How can I dynamically delete an element given its id?

I can't find any info on the internet.

Regards,
Ric.


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