Is there a way to make GNOME Panel backgrounds stretch vertically, rather than repeat?

I have another strange issue with the GNOME Panel. Images (that I am using as backgrounds) instead of scaling vertically, are actually repeating vertically, leaving me with a really weird effect: Notice the **horizontal** line straight through the middle of the panel, this is the edge at which the pattern repeats. I'm using SVG images for the background, so scaling shouldn't be an issue. Is there a way to specify "scale" and not "repeat" for vertical layout? This whole thing is brought on by having a panel size not in keeping with the defaults, and I need the extra panel size because of the icon set I'm using.