See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Footnotes#cite.php_update {{Reflist}} has already been changed to allow: {{reflist| refs= <ref name="refname1">content1</ref> <ref name="refname2">content2</ref> <ref name="refname3">content3</ref> }}
A little ugly, but everyone copy-pastes anyway. Also take a look at the discussion here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29#Footnote...
If I may push my most radical suggestion, I want i.e. <<Smith2006>> to be a shortcut for <ref name="Smith2006" /> allowing for very short references in text.