use strict;
my $str = '<ol>
<li>This is a new list</li>
<ol>
<li>Embedded List</li>
<li>Embedded List</li>
</ol>
</ol>';
my $regex = qr/(<li[^<]*>)([^>]*<\/li>)(?=(?![\s\S]*?<ol[^<]*>)[\s\S]*?<\/ol>)/p;
my $subst = '$1 $2';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html