New Post: SP2007 UpdateListItems with Hyperlink column

I have list column that is defined as a hyperlink. I am using a non-sharepoint page to add new items as well as update them. When I add a new record, all is fine excep that the hyperlink is displayed as the anchor text, not the "link". So <a href="http://www.google.com"&gtGoogle</a> gets shown as plain text,not a link with "Google" displayed. If I manually edit the list item with EditForm.aspx, it displays properly. Retrieving the list item using GetListItems gives me the correct anchor html. I have looked at the post via fiddler and everything seems in order. The one thing I haven't tried is to setup the CAML instead of using value pairs so that I can set the type= in the update. I am unclear whether my request is specified correctly or if some escaping is required. A correctly formated field should yield a link in the DispForm.aspx.

correct format Image may be NSFW.
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not so correct Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

I have tried the action below with 1) plain url, 2) html anchor, 3)url, url description, 4) urlEncoded... What am I missing here?

<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'><soap:Body><UpdateListItems xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/'>
<listName>Purchase Characterization</listName>
<updates><Batch OnError='Continue'>
<Method ID='1' Cmd='New'>
<Field Name='ContentType'>CharacterizeServers</Field>
<Field Name='parentRqID'>1234</Field>
<Field Name='Title'>XXXTitleXXXRequest ID:1234/Test - Do not process</Field>
<Field Name='RequestLink'>http://teams8xxxxRequest/DispForm.aspx?ID=1234</Field>
</Batch>
</updates>
</UpdateListItems>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

Bill