Attribute 'Start' is considered outdated

I've been trying to create ordered lists in html that don't start at 1.

e.g.

3. List item 3
4. List item 4

etc

The easy route of using the 'start=' attribute in the <ol > tag
e.g. <ol start="3" >, however , contravenes that laws of XHTML transitional 1.0

(e.g. you get the "Attribute 'Start' is considered outdated" warning in VS2005)

Does anyone know of a valid way of starting ordered lists at some point other than one ???