So use something like
Code:
<p class="sectionbreak">& #160;</p>
in the html files and the following in the stylesheet:
Code:
.sectionbreak {
padding-top: 1.4em;
padding-bottom: 1.4em;
}
I've also seen ebooks where the creator has added a couple of paragraph styles for before and after section break (basically add the padding-bottom to the above and padding-top to the below but I prefer the section break since it allows me more options such as adding an fleuron or other image.
Edit: remove the space between the & and # since it's only there to allow the text to be displayed.