Compact DocBook ?

Dear all,

[I hope this is on-topic for this list]

I'm hoping to embed DocBook within some Java code (as comments).  Along with 
some support utilities, this should allow embedding of documentation next to 
the code it describes.  This is somewhat similar to JavaDoc, but:

   a.  using DocBook vocabulary,

   b.  to be included within end-user documentation.

The thought of writing DocBook XML inside Java comments isn't appealing.

So, does anyone know of a more compact markup for DocBook than XML (e.g., 
RELAX-NG) ?

Cheers,

Paul.