Boxes controls links to theming function

The boxes controls are made inside function boxes_block_view().
Is it possible to make this into a theming function to make this reachable from the theming layer? (for adding attributes,…)

      $block['controls'] = theme('links', array(
        'links' => array(
          'edit' => $edit_link,
          'cancel' => array(
            'title' => t('Cancel'),
            'href' => $_GET['q'],
          ),
        ),
      ));