small problem with re.sub

[Astan Chee]

Hi,
I have a html text stored as a string. Now I want to go through this 
string and find all 6 digit numbers and make links from them.
Im using re.sub and for some reason its not picking up the previously 
matched condition. Am I doing something wrong? This is what my code 
looks like:
htmlStr = re.sub('(?P<id>\d{6})','<a 
href=\"http://linky.com/(?P=id).html\">(?P=id)</a>',htmlStr)
It seems that it replaces it alright, but it replaces it literally. Am I 
not escaping certain characters?
Thanks again for the help.
Cheers

Animal Logic
http://www.animallogic.com

Please think of the environment before printing this email.

This email and any attachments may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must not disclose or use the information contained in it. Please notify the sender immediately and delete this document if you have received it in error. We do not guarantee this email is error or virus free.