[mod_python] Import a module into a variable value

I'm doing a very light templating in a publisher program.

There is a html template read from the index.html file in which
'%(variable)s' are replaced.

This code reads the template from the file:

f = open('/var/www/html/carconsumption.com/index.html', 'r')
_html = ''.join(f.readlines())
f.close()

And then inside index() at return time the usual substitution:

   return C._html % _d

Editing a file with the extension .html is nice with editors with html
syntax highlighting, completion and other things. The only problem
with this approach is that the file index.html is not reloaded when
changed.

I know i could just use a generic handler with PSP as templating. But
the publisher is so convenient and as the new importer in 3.3 is full
of tricks like importing modules with any extension i would like to
know if there is some way to import a whole module into a variable
value preventing it from being interpreted as python code.

If the above is nonsense what would be a better approach for
templating within publisher programs or just to solve the not
reloadable index.html file?

Regards,
-- 
Clodoaldo Pinto Neto