[jQuery] CSS question: background color + background image with transparency

[jQuery] CSS question: background color + background image with transparency


Hi,
this isn't a jQuery question by nature, but I've searched the net for
a while now for a suitable solution with no success, so perhaps the
knowledgable folks here may have a hint for me.
Here's the problem:
I have an element (div) to which I would like to apply a png
background image with rounded corners on a transparent background,
i.e. the outer pixels of the image have an alpha channel shadow. I
want the background of the element to show through on these outer
pixels.
The image is dark, and I want the text inside the element to be white.
#element{
    background: url("bg.png");
    color: #ffffff;
}
Now if I turn images off, the text is displayed white on my white page
background.
If I add a background color
#element{
    background: url("bg.png") #000000;
    color: #ffffff;
}
it looks fine with images off, but with images on, the black will show
through around the corners of my background image.
Here's the question: how can I apply the background color only if
images are turned off (or the other way around: change the foreground
color to white only if images are enabled. Or, another approach: how
can I force the background color to not show through the transparent
element?
Thanks for any ideas,
Bernd