The task is to create links:

[IMG]http://i063.radikal.ru/0911/05/84280713bc76.png[/IMG]
It can be done using HTML only. Something like this:

<a href="#"><img border="0" src="images/img10.gif" width="9" height="11" alt="" /></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#">Read More</a>bsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
 <a href="#"><img border="0" src="images/img11.gif" width="13" height="12" alt="" /></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#">Comments (33)</a>

But it also can be done using CSS. For that you have to create classes, write a bit more. Which way is preferable? And in the case of using CSS what is better to use an image as a background or just as an image?

It depends.
I would say that if the image is part of the link content (as opposed to link presentation), using HTML tags would make more sense.
If the idea is simply to make part of your website look nice, CSS might make sense.

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