[TYPO3-english] Help needed with error 'syntax error, unexpected '<' in [...]typo3conf/temp_CACHED_[...]_ext_tables.php'

[astera]

Hello everyone,

I am experiencing a pretty weird error after upgrading a fairly old
version of Typo3 (4.0) - step by step - to version 4.4.8; in the Apache2
logs, I now find the following error msg:
<snip>
PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '<' in
/webs/website/typo3/typo3conf/temp_CACHED_psb89d_ext_tables.php on line 3501
</snip>
and a blank page is shown.

Line 3501 of temp_CACHED_psb89d_ext_tables.php reads as follows:
<snip>
3493 ###########################
3494 ## EXTENSION: cssfilelink
3495 ## FILE:
/webs/website/typo3/typo3conf/ext/cssfilelink/ext_tables.php
3496 ###########################
3497
3498 $_EXTKEY = 'cssfilelink';
3499 $_EXTCONF = $TYPO3_CONF_VARS['EXT']['extConf'][$_EXTKEY];
3500
3501 <?
3502 t3lib_extMgm::addStaticFile($_EXTKEY,'static/','CSS-Filelink');
3503
</snip>

Now, if I comment out line 3501, obviously the page gets displayed and
works as expected - however, this file apparently gets re-written from
time to time, and I wonder how one had to go about fixing this error
permanently?

Thanks a ton in advance,
/astera

P.S. Some server facts:
Linux kernel: 2.6.32-5-amd64
PHP Version: 5.3.3-7+squeeze1
Webserver: Apache 2.0 w/Suhosin patch