Stop auto close tags?

Hi,

I’m running WP 1.5.2, and would like to know if it’s possible to stop WordPress automatically closing tags? I’m trying to use the '<col>' element, which isn’t supposed to be closed. Unfortunately, WP closes it. I can’t find an option to stop it, and searching has revealed nothing.

I’m not entirely sure how the innards of WP work, but if there is a file which lists which tags to auto close or something, I would be comfortable editing it.

EDIT: Sub-question. Would editing the entry in my database solve this issue? I’d prefer not to turn all auto close tags off, so if I could publish with the superfluous tags, and then edit the entry in the database to remove the tags (one entry, ten tags), would it then be correctly shown?

Thanks in advance!