Secure and HttpOnly flags for session cookie Websphere 7

In Servlet 3.0 complaint application servers I can set the HttpOnly and secure flags for the session cookie (JSESSIONID) by adding the following to the web.xml:

<session-config>
  <cookie-config>
    <secure>true</secure>
    <http-only>true</http-only>
  </cookie-config>
</session-config>

However, the application I'm working on is to be deployed in Websphere 7, which is Servlet 2.5 complaint and it fails to start if I add the above to the web.xml

Is there any other declarative way or setting in Websphere 7 configuration to turn on the HttpOnly and secure flags for the session cookie?

If not, what would be the best approach to accomplish that programmatically?