diff --git includes/common.inc includes/common.inc
index c21ec66..809ef65 100644
--- includes/common.inc
+++ includes/common.inc
@@ -3202,8 +3202,8 @@ function drupal_pre_render_styles($elements) {
   // For inline CSS to validate as XHTML, all CSS containing XHTML needs to be
   // wrapped in CDATA. To make that backwards compatible with HTML 4, we need to
   // comment out the CDATA-tag.
-  $embed_prefix = "\n<!--/*--><![CDATA[/*><!--*/\n";
-  $embed_suffix = "\n/*]]>*/-->\n";
+  $embed_prefix = "\n/* <![CDATA[ */\n";
+  $embed_suffix = "\n/* ]]> */\n";
 
   // Defaults for LINK and STYLE elements.
   $link_element_defaults = array(
diff --git modules/simpletest/tests/common.test modules/simpletest/tests/common.test
index 19dd70c..6199a0a 100644
--- modules/simpletest/tests/common.test
+++ modules/simpletest/tests/common.test
@@ -654,7 +654,7 @@ class CascadingStylesheetsTestCase extends DrupalWebTestCase {
    */
   function testRenderInlinePreprocess() {
     $css = 'body { padding: 0px; }';
-    $css_preprocessed = '<style type="text/css" media="all">' . "\n<!--/*--><![CDATA[/*><!--*/\n" . drupal_load_stylesheet_content($css, TRUE) . "\n/*]]>*/-->\n" . '</style>';
+    $css_preprocessed = '<style type="text/css" media="all">' . "\n/* <![CDATA[ */\n" . drupal_load_stylesheet_content($css, TRUE) . "\n/* ]]> */\n" . '</style>';
     drupal_add_css($css, array('type' => 'inline'));
     $styles = drupal_get_css();
     $this->assertEqual(trim($styles), $css_preprocessed, t('Rendering preprocessed inline CSS adds it to the page.'));