Absolutely positioned reactive-clickable images positioned on top of another image are not reactive in their padding area

Steps to reproduce:

• hover the mouse in the padding area (between blue border and yellow button) of the clickable W3C image-buttons above
• click inside the padding area

Actual results in IE 8 RC1 build 18372:

• there is no change of background-color in the padding area
• the referenced resource (validation process of the page) does not load into the window

Expected results:

• an horizontal stripe of bright green should appear on each side of the W3C image-buttons
• the referenced resource (validation process at W3C) should load and execute into the window

Note: hover the mouse cursor over the blue border of the clickable W3C image-buttons above in IE 8 RC1 build 18372 actually makes the link reactive, applying the :hover class.

NS 7.0, NS 7.1, NS 7.2, Firefox 1.5.x, Firefox 2.0.0.3, Firefox 3, Opera 9.63, Safari 2.0.4, Safari 3.0.4, Konqueror 3.5.5, Konqueror 4.1.3, Seamonkey 1.x, Seamonkey 2.x, K-meleon 1.x all pass this test.

This bug has been reported at connect's IE beta feedback as bug 411772.

Update: this bug has been FIXED in Internet Explorer 8 final release build 6001.18702 released on March 19th 2009. Otherwise, Internet Explorer 8 final release build 6001.18702 PASSES this specific and particular testcase.