validation using w3.org help!

[tipoboy]

hi there folks i need a bit of help validating my site

i started off with over 300 errors and have got it down to 46.

the next error i need to deal with relates to my forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost template, which is

<!-- top -->
<table class="forumbit1" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td class="cattitle" width="35" valign="top"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/cattitle_left.gif" width="35" height="47" alt="&nbsp;" /></td>
    <td class="cattitle" width="85%">
 <a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forum[forumid]"><strong>$forum[title]</strong></a> 
<if condition="$show['forumdescription']">: <span class="smallfont">$forum[description]</span></if>
</td>
    <td class="cattitle" valign="top">
 
 <div align="right">
 <img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/cattitle_right.gif" width="35" height="47" alt="&nbsp;" /> 
</div></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td colspan="3">
 
 
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="95%" align="center">
<if condition="$childforumbits">
<tbody id="collapseobj_forumbit_$forumid" style="{$collapseobj_forumid}">
 <tr align="center">
   <td class="thead" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
   <td class="thead" width="45%" align="$stylevar[left]">$vbphrase[forum]</td>
           <td class="thead">&nbsp;</td>
   <td class="thead" width="30%">$vbphrase[last_post]</td>
   <td class="thead" width="10%">$vbphrase[threads]</td>
   <td class="thead" width="10%">$vbphrase[posts]</td>
   <if condition="$vboptions[showmoderatorcolumn]">
   <td class="thead">$vbphrase[moderator]</td>
   </if>
 </tr>
$childforumbits
</if>
</tbody>
</table>
 
 
 
 </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td class="catfooter"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/catfooter_left.gif" alt="&nbsp;" /></td>
    <td class="catfooter">&nbsp;</td>
    <td class="catfooter"><div align="right"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/catfooter_right.gif" alt="&nbsp;" /></div></td>
  </tr>
</table>
<!-- /top -->
<!--div style="padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;"></div-->

the error i need to sort out is

Line 249, Column 80: document type does not allow element "table" here .
?r="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">The element named above was found in a context where it is not allowed. This could mean that you have incorrectly nested elements -- such as a "style" element in the "body" section instead of inside "head" -- or two elements that overlap (which is not allowed).
One common cause for this error is the use of XHTML syntax in HTML documents. Due to HTML's rules of implicitly closed elements, this error can create cascading effects. For instance, using XHTML's "self-closing" tags for "meta" and "link" in the "head" section of a HTML document may cause the parser to infer the end of the "head" section and the beginning of the "body" section (where "link" and "meta" are not allowed; hence the reported error).

any help here would be grately appreciated