Control <span> width in IE and FF

I'm editing someone else's code to insert headings on colored rectangle backgrounds, that are 3 rows deep and NOT to go the full width of the table cell.

As the code below shows, I've used <span> and multiple &nbsp; to complete the create this effect. It seems an amateurish way to go about it [I'm not a CSS expert] but it works in IE8. The right hand sides of each row line up nicely. However, in FireFOX the same code produces a ragged right hand side to the rectangle with each row a different length. [Apple Safari could be a problem too.]

As an alternative I've tried using a <div> style but I have trouble limiting its height, and limiting its width to less than the table cell width.

<td width="311" class="column2">
      <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="301">
         <tr> 
          <td height="50" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#ffcc00"> 

	<p><span style="color: #FFFFFF; background: #666666; height:17">
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            </span></p>

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