<style>
li { margin: 0.5em 0em 0.5em 0em; }
</style>

<p>Blah Blah Blah some paragraph text blah blah blah</p>
<ul>
<li>some item</li>
<li>some item</li>
</ul>
<p>Blah Blah Blah some paragraph text blah blah blah</p>

This HTML will get you want you want, increase the margins for more spacing in the list items. Works fine in IE6 and Mozilla.