Percent repeat sign

[Claus Wilke]

Hello,

is it possible to directly engrave percent repeat signs? As far as I 
understand, the percent repeat mechanism always first engraves something 
(notes, rests, etc.), and then engraves bars with repeat signs. I.e., if I do
\repeat "percent" 4 { r1 }
I get one bar with a rest, and then three bars with the percent sign. However, 
I would like to have four bars with the percent sign, and no bar with the 
rest. Is there any way to do it?

FYI, I am still on lilipond 2.2, so any answer that works with this version 
would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot for an otherwise great program!

Claus