Tiling based on width?

Hi! I have a set of four links in my navigation menu. Each one starts off grey and then turns white on rollover (CSS). I'm trying to give each one the same background IMAGE on rollover, but the problem is that they're all different sizes. So my question is:

Is there a way to have a left cap and a right cap on an image and then have the middle repeat along the x axis based on how long the image is?

I hope that's not too hard to understand
Thanks for any help!!

-iMaster