2columns fix display vertical

[muralibobby2015]

hello....

i want to diplay countrys vertically using <ul>.forexample there is 10 countrys. i want to dispaly first five in first column and next in secound column. how to do this dynamically.

[U]COLUMN1 [/U]                           [U] COLUMN2[/U]
                                 
<ul>                                       
ARGENTINA                                        
<li>state1</li>                                  
<li>state2</li>                               
<li>state3</li>
</ul>
<ul>
AUSTRALIA
<li>state1</li>
<li>state2</li>
<li>state3</li>
</ul>
<ul>
AUSTRIA
<li>state1</li>
<li>state2</li>
<li>state3</li>
</ul>
<ul>                              
ARGENTINA
<li>state1</li>
<li>state2</li>
<li>state3</li>
</ul>

[almostbob]

just to clarify,
you want to
break the list into two columns,
of approximately equal size,
break at country headings, not states so the top of each column will be a country name,
using the correct number of states per country read from the database( Australia has 9 not 3 the US has 50)

not merely break the list at an arbitrary centre point regardless of content, not leaving orphaned country/state names at the bottom of the first column that relate to other items miles away at the top of the second column..