Locator does not point to start of element

When startElement() is called on my Handler, the
document locator does not actually point to the start
of the element, but to the position *past* the element
start. E.g. consider the following XML fragment:

<tag attrib1="value1" attrib2="value2>
.
.
.
</tag>

In 
<tag attrib1="value1" attrib2="value2>
^                                     ^
Expected locator                      Actual locator

The actual locator at statElement() is one column past
the end of element start. Is there a way to get the
locator to point to the real start of the element?

Thanks.
-Raj