Escaping '*' in verbatim blocks

[dajva]

Thanks for a great package.
In verbatim org blocks, consecutive * from start of the string becomes escaped when converting it to restrucured text.
Examples:

=* foo *= -> ``\* foo *``
=** foo *= -> ``\*\* foo *``

What is the background if this behavior? I don't know restructured text very well but using sphinx to export it to other formats preserve the backslash.
I'd like to have literal * in verbatim blocks but can't figure out how to do that.

Looking at the regexp in the code it confirms this behavior:

(string-match "\\`*" text)

I've been trying to avoid this issue by using this instead but not sure if it's what is intended:

(string-match "`+" text)