Index: django/utils/html.py
===================================================================
--- django/utils/html.py	(revision 8200)
+++ django/utils/html.py	(working copy)
@@ -59,7 +59,9 @@
 
 def strip_spaces_between_tags(value):
     """Returns the given HTML with spaces between tags removed."""
-    return re.sub(r'>\s+<', '><', force_unicode(value))
+    value = re.sub(r'>\s+<', '> <', force_unicode(value))
+    value = re.sub(r'([^(em|strong|a)])>\s+<', r'\1><', value)
+    return re.sub(r'>\s+<([^(em|strong|a)])', r'><\1', value)
 strip_spaces_between_tags = allow_lazy(strip_spaces_between_tags, unicode)
 
 def strip_entities(value):