Why "vertical-align: middle;" doesn't work with "min-height"?

Question

When I set min-height and "vertical-align: middle;" the text is not aligned vertically.
First example: http://jsfiddle.net/pkaXR/
How should I change css align image and text vertically ?

Answer 1

min-height sets the minimum height of a block.

vertical-align sets the position of inline content on a line.

Answer 2

Perhaps like http://jsfiddle.net/rPsEJ/26/ - I'm not sure I understood the question right though. ;-) As far as I know, vertical-align only applies to table cells.