Number format validation issues

Greetings,

I have a custom type with a numeric data type as defined below:

<cfproperty ftSeq="412" ftWizardStep="EC" ftFieldSet="EC" ftLabel="Estimated EC Contribution" default="" hint="Est. EC Contribution" name="est_ec_contrib" type="numeric" ftValidation="validate-number" />

Each time I load the editing page for this field, it sets the value to "0,00". As you can see, that's a number. However, it's not a number according to the validation rule which doesn't take into account spaces or the comma instead of a full stop (or period for you Americans) as a decimal separator.

I therefore would like to know two things:
- How easy would it be to alter the validation script to accept spaces and , instead of .
- and, Why is it every time I load that wizard page it defaults to a value that won't pass the validation - what can I do to stop this?

Cheers,
-Phil