Drop down issue when loading a partial - rails 3

I am working on rails 3 and using ajax to load a form, there is a country drop down that has values thats not loading properly. Its loading html entities of the "<" and ">" sign like "<" & ">".

This is how i am rendering the partial that has the countries list

$j('#insert_to').append("<%= escape_javascript(render :partial => 'verified_address', :locals => { :item => @item, :original_item => nil, :update_alert => false }).html_safe %>");

Any help would be appreciated.