[jQuery] how to select only child elements?

[jQuery] how to select only child elements?

Hi, all.
I am a javascript newbie and a new jQuery user. I just fall in love with jQuery, it works fine for me :)
And the problem what I encounter is: how can I select only child elements?
For my poor Englist (just say sorry for that), an example givin here may be make my problem clearly:
<ul id="menu">
    <li><a href="#">Menu item 1</a>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="#">我们编码</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Web标准</a></li>
           ....
        </ul>
    </li>....
</ul>
How can I only select the child <span style="font-style: italic;">li</span>s just as #memu > li as CSS do? Use $("#menu li") will select all the
<span style="font-style: italic;">li</span>s....
Thanks advanced...
Realazy XA Chen from Beijing, China<br clear="all">
--
<a href="http://realazy.org">realazy.org</a>
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