JQuery UI sortable is slow in IE8, but works good in IE7 and IE8 compatible mode

Question

JQuery UI sortable (including demos) are slow in all IE8 I can test, but runs smoothly in IE7 and IE8 compatible mode. The more complex is a markup on the page, the more IE8 is slowing down (that's I can understand, the DOM tree became more complex).

I'm using JQuery 1.3.2 and JQuery UI 1.7.2 (tested with 1.7.3 -- the same story).

I've found a lot of similar reports (for the new JQuery UI 1.8.x with JQuery 1.4 too), but no answers.

May be there is a some solution (EXCEPT turning IE8 into IE7 compatibility mode by metatag or header). Thanks in advance!