Post excerpt and taxonomy shortcode

Hi Tom / Leo,

i am working on some Post layouts and want to display excerpt and taxonomies using a shortcode. Currently being added to a left side bar. So far i have cobbled together the following PHP. But i am not sure how to return the content so it remains within the aside widget.

function display_the_excerpt() {    
    if ( have_posts() ) :
        while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
  		echo '<div class="aside-excerpt">';
        		the_excerpt(); 
  		echo '</div>';
  		echo '<div class="aside-categories">';  			
          		the_terms( $post->ID, 'category', '', '');
  		echo '</div>';
  		echo '<div class="aside-post-tags">';
  			the_terms( $post->ID, 'post_tag', '', '');
  		echo '</div>';
        endwhile;
    endif;
    }

add_shortcode ( 'display_excerpt' , 'display_the_excerpt' );

Any thoughts appreciated.

David