Alternative to the <center> tag

[Plater]

To accomplish what I am looking for (the image centered in it's parent top 'centered') I have done this:

<div id="backing">
   <div id="lbImgBacker">
      <center>
         <img id="Image1" src="banner.JPG" alt="" style="border-width:0px;" />
      </center>
   </div>
   <div id="ExampleLeftAlignElement" ></div> 
   <!-- other elements and the rest of the page -->
</div>
 

The following CSS is also applied

#backing
{
    z-index: 100;
    position: static;
    display: block;
    width: 760px;
    background-color: #faebd8;
    text-align:left; 
}
#Image1
{
    z-index: 100;
    display: block;
    height: 127px;
    width: 756px;
    border-width: 0px;
    cursor: pointer ;
}
 
#lbImgBacker
{
    z-index: 100;
    position: static;
    display: inline;
    text-align: center;
    width: 760px;
    height: 130px;
    color: #804000;
    background-color: Transparent;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 12pt;
}
 

The "text-align:left" in #backing is required for the rest of the page, and seems to override any child styles I attemp to apply.

For arguments sake, "lbImgBacker" is the same width as "backing" and doesn't matter if the text-align is left/center/right. But the image INSIDE "lbImgBacker" should be centered inside of it. This is what I cannot seem to do with style properties. That <center> tag is the only thing that does it, but is not allowed by W3 to be there.
Do I have an alternataive?

[David Laakso]

Delete the opening and closing center tags. Add this to the CSS:

#backing
{ margin: 0 auto;}
#Image1
{ margin: 0 auto;}
 

[Plater]

Well I don't understand it, but that seemed to do the trick. Thanks!

[David Laakso]

Well I don't understand it, but that seemed to do the trick. Thanks!

I share your opinion. Or, do I?
w3c

[Atli]

Well I don't understand it, but that seemed to do the trick. Thanks!

If you set the margin to auto, the browser will (should) try to automatically calculate the margin on all sides of the element, effectively placing it at the center.

This usually depends on both the inner and outer elements to have a fixed width so the margin can be calculated. This doesn't appear to work with vertical alignment tho, which is kind of weird considering that it's basically the same calculations.

[David Laakso]

This doesn't appear to work with vertical alignment tho, which is kind of weird considering that it's basically the same calculations.

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Huston