diff --git a/cake/libs/view/helpers/xml.php b/cake/libs/view/helpers/xml.php
index 9398fa176..d2b8bbb92 100644
--- a/cake/libs/view/helpers/xml.php
+++ b/cake/libs/view/helpers/xml.php
@@ -36,27 +36,6 @@ App::import('Core', array('Xml', 'Set'));
  */
 class XmlHelper extends AppHelper {
 
-/**
- * Name of the current model
- *
- * @access public
- * @var string
- */
-	var $model = null;
-/**
- * Name of the current field
- *
- * @access public
- * @var string
- */
-	var $field = null;
-/**
- * Namespaces to be utilized by default when generating documents
- *
- * @access private
- * @var array
- */
-	var $__namespaces = array();
 /**
  * Default document encoding
  *
@@ -76,10 +55,13 @@ class XmlHelper extends AppHelper {
 		}
 
 		if (is_array($attrib)) {
-			$attrib = array_merge(array('version' => '1.0', 'encoding' => $this->encoding), $attrib);
+			$attrib = array_merge(array('encoding' => $this->encoding), $attrib);
+		}
+		if (is_string($attrib) && strpos($attrib, 'xml') !== 0) {
+			$attrib = 'xml ' . $attrib;
 		}
 
-		return $this->output('<' . '?xml' . $this->__composeAttributes($attrib) . ' ?' . '>');
+		return $this->output($this->Xml->header($attrib));
 	}
 /**
  * Adds a namespace to any documents generated
@@ -92,7 +74,7 @@ class XmlHelper extends AppHelper {
  * @see Xml::addNs()
  */
 	function addNs($name, $url = null) {
-		return Xml::addNamespace($name, $url);
+		return $this->Xml->addNamespace($name, $url);
 	}
 /**
  * Removes a namespace added in addNs()
@@ -102,23 +84,7 @@ class XmlHelper extends AppHelper {
  * @see Xml::removeNs()
  */
 	function removeNs($name) {
-		Xml::removeGlobalNamespace($name);
-	}
-/**
- * Prepares the current set of namespaces for output in elem() / __composeAttributes()
- *
- * @return array The contents of $__namespaces, with all keys prefixed with 'xmlns:'
- */
-	function __prepareNamespaces() {
-		if (!empty($this->__namespaces)) {
-			$keys = array_keys($this->__namespaces);
-			$count = count($keys);
-			for ($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
-				$keys[$i] = 'xmlns:' . $keys[$i];
-			}
-			return array_combine($keys, array_values($this->__namespaces));
-		}
-		return array();
+		return $this->Xml->removeGlobalNamespace($name);
 	}
 /**
  * Generates an XML element
@@ -130,81 +96,41 @@ class XmlHelper extends AppHelper {
  * @return string XML
  */
 	function elem($name, $attrib = array(), $content = null, $endTag = true) {
-		$ns = null;
-
+		$namespace = null;
 		if (isset($attrib['namespace'])) {
-			$ns = $attrib['namespace'] . ':';
+			$namespace = $attrib['namespace'];
 			unset($attrib['namespace']);
 		}
-		$out = "<{$ns}{$name}" . $this->__composeAttributes($attrib);
+		$cdata = false;
+		if (is_array($content) && isset($content['cdata'])) {
+			$cdata = true;
+			unset($content['cdata']);
+		}
+		if (is_array($content) && isset($content['value'])) {
+			$content = $content['value'];
+		}
+		$children = array();
+		if (is_array($content)) {
+			$children = $content;
+			$content = null;
+		}
+		$elem =& $this->Xml->createElement($name, $content, $attrib, $namespace);
+		foreach ($children as $child) {
+			$elem->createElement($child);
+		}
+		$out = $elem->toString(array('cdata' => $cdata, 'leaveOpen' => !$endTag));
 
-		if ((empty($content) && $content !== 0) && $endTag) {
-			$out .= ' />';
-		} else {
-			$out .= '>' . $this->__composeContent($content);
-			if ($endTag) {
-				$out .= "</{$name}>";
-			}
+		if (!$endTag) {
+			$this->Xml =& $elem;
 		}
 		return $this->output($out);
 	}
-/**
- * Generates XML element attributes
- *
- * @param  mixed  $attributes
- * @return string Formatted XML attributes for inclusion in an XML element
- */
-	function __composeAttributes($attributes = array()) {
-		$out = '';
-		if (is_array($attributes) && !empty($attributes)) {
-			$attr = array();
-			$keys = array_keys($attributes);
-			$count = count($keys);
-			for ($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
-				$attr[] = $keys[$i] . '="' . h($attributes[$keys[$i]]) . '"';
-			}
-			$out .= ' ' . join(' ', $attr);
-		} elseif (is_string($attributes) && !empty($attributes)) {
-			$out .= ' ' . $attributes;
-		}
-		return $out;
-	}
-/**
- * Generates XML content based on the type of variable or object passed
- *
- * @param  mixed  $content The content to be converted to XML
- * @return string XML
- */
-	function __composeContent($content) {
-		if (is_string($content)) {
-			return $content;
-		} elseif (is_array($content)) {
-			$out = '';
-			$keys = array_keys($content);
-			$count = count($keys);
-
-			for ($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
-				if (is_numeric($content[$keys[$i]])) {
-					$out .= $this->__composeContent($content[$keys[$i]]);
-				} elseif (is_array($content[$keys[$i]])) {
-					$attr = $child = array();
-					if (Set::countDim($content[$keys[$i]]) >= 2) {
-						trigger_error(__('Dimension for XmlHelper::__composeContent is too high (>= 2). Please use an array with less dimension.', true), E_USER_WARNING);
-					} else {
-						$out .= $this->__composeContent($content[$keys[$i]]);
-					}
-				} elseif (is_string($content[$keys[$i]])) {
-					$out .= $this->elem($content[$keys[$i]]);
-				}
-			}
-			return $out;
-		} elseif (is_object($content) && (is_a($content, 'XmlNode') || is_a($content, 'xmlnode'))) {
-			return $content->toString();
-		} elseif (is_object($content) && method_exists($content, 'toString')) {
-			return $content->toString();
-		} else {
-			return $content;
+	function closeElem() {
+		$name = $this->Xml->name();
+		if ($parent =& $this->Xml->parent()) {
+			$this->Xml =& $parent;
 		}
+		return $this->output('</' . $name . '>');
 	}
 /**
  * Serializes a model resultset into XML
@@ -217,6 +143,11 @@ class XmlHelper extends AppHelper {
 		$data = new Xml($data, array_merge(array('attributes' => false, 'format' => 'attributes'), $options));
 		return $data->toString(array_merge(array('header' => false), $options));
 	}
+	
+	function beforeRender() {
+		$this->Xml =& new Xml();
+		$this->Xml->options(array('verifyNs' => false));
+	}
 }
 
 ?>
\ No newline at end of file