diff --git a/cake/libs/xml.php b/cake/libs/xml.php
index 5c8cb40c3..c61cfa0c0 100644
--- a/cake/libs/xml.php
+++ b/cake/libs/xml.php
@@ -691,7 +691,6 @@ class XmlNode extends Object {
 
 		foreach ($this->children as $child) {
 			$key = $camelize ? Inflector::camelize($child->name) : $child->name;
-			//debug($key);
 
 			if (is_a($child, 'XmlTextNode')) {
 				$out['value'] = $child->value;
@@ -873,7 +872,7 @@ class Xml extends XmlNode {
 		parent::__construct('#document');
 
 		if ($options['root'] !== '#document') {
-			$Root = $this->createNode($options['root']);
+			$Root =& $this->createNode($options['root']);
 		} else {
 			$Root =& $this;
 		}
@@ -955,6 +954,8 @@ class Xml extends XmlNode {
 				break;
 			}
 		}
+		xml_parser_free($this->__parser);
+		$this->__parser = null;
 		return true;
 	}
 
@@ -1132,9 +1133,6 @@ class Xml extends XmlNode {
  * @access private
  */
 	function __destruct() {
-		if (is_resource($this->__parser)) {
-			xml_parser_free($this->__parser);
-		}
 		$this->_killParent(true);
 	}
 
diff --git a/cake/tests/cases/libs/xml.test.php b/cake/tests/cases/libs/xml.test.php
index aa237fb07..c8358210a 100644
--- a/cake/tests/cases/libs/xml.test.php
+++ b/cake/tests/cases/libs/xml.test.php
@@ -1396,5 +1396,25 @@ class XmlTest extends CakeTestCase {
 		$result = $result[0]->first();
 		$this->assertEqual($result->value, '012345');
 	}
+
+/**
+ * test that creating an xml object does not leak memory
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+	function testMemoryLeakInConstructor() {
+		if ($this->skipIf(!function_exists('memory_get_usage'), 'Cannot test memory leaks without memory_get_usage')) {
+			return;
+		}
+		$data = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><content>TEST</content>';
+		$start = memory_get_usage();
+		for ($i = 0; $i <= 300; $i++) {
+			$test =& new XML($data);
+			$test->__destruct();
+			unset($test);
+		}
+		$end = memory_get_usage();
+		$this->assertWithinMargin($start, $end, 3600, 'Memory leaked %s');
+	}
 }
 ?>
\ No newline at end of file