Index: core/defaulttags.py
===================================================================
--- core/defaulttags.py	(revision 854)
+++ core/defaulttags.py	(working copy)
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 "Default tags used by the template system, available to all templates."
 
+import os
 import sys
 import template
+import template_file
 
 class CommentNode(template.Node):
     def render(self, context):
@@ -210,14 +212,20 @@
         self.filepath, self.parsed = filepath, parsed
 
     def render(self, context):
-        if not include_is_allowed(self.filepath):
-            return '' # Fail silently for invalid includes.
-        try:
-            fp = open(self.filepath, 'r')
-            output = fp.read()
-            fp.close()
-        except IOError:
-            output = ''
+        if not os.path.isabs(self.filepath):
+            try:
+                output = template_file.load_template_source(self.filepath)
+            except template.TemplateDoesNotExist:
+                return '' # Fail silently for non-existant templates
+        else:
+            if not include_is_allowed(self.filepath):
+                return '' # Fail silently for invalid includes.
+            try:
+                fp = open(self.filepath, 'r')
+                output = fp.read()
+                fp.close()
+            except IOError:
+                output = ''
         if self.parsed:
             try:
                 t = template.Template(output)
@@ -586,11 +594,17 @@
     Output the contents of a given file into the page.
 
     Like a simple "include" tag, the ``ssi`` tag includes the contents
-    of another file -- which must be specified using an absolute page --
-    in the current page::
+    of another file in the current page.  The file must be specified
+    as either an absolute path (in which case the path must be in the
+    ALLOWED_INCLUDE_ROOTS setting in settings/main.py)::
 
         {% ssi /home/html/ljworld.com/includes/right_generic.html %}
 
+    ... or as a relative path to a template file as per a call to 
+    template_loader.get_template()::
+
+        {% ssi news/right_generic %}
+
     If the optional "parsed" parameter is given, the contents of the included
     file are evaluated as template code, with the current context::