diff --git a/cake/libs/controller/components/request_handler.php b/cake/libs/controller/components/request_handler.php
index 70ef9b20c..fbbf01afa 100644
--- a/cake/libs/controller/components/request_handler.php
+++ b/cake/libs/controller/components/request_handler.php
@@ -219,10 +219,10 @@ class RequestHandlerComponent extends Object {
 			}
 			$xml = new Xml(trim(file_get_contents('php://input')));
 
-			if (is_object($xml->child('data')) && count($xml->children) == 1) {
-				$controller->data = $xml->child('data');
+			if (count($xml->children) == 1 && is_object($dataNode = $xml->child('data'))) {
+				$controller->data = $dataNode->toArray();
 			} else {
-				$controller->data = $xml;
+				$controller->data = $xml->toArray();
 			}
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/cake/tests/cases/libs/controller/components/request_handler.test.php b/cake/tests/cases/libs/controller/components/request_handler.test.php
index 9f979c323..a05bd2177 100644
--- a/cake/tests/cases/libs/controller/components/request_handler.test.php
+++ b/cake/tests/cases/libs/controller/components/request_handler.test.php
@@ -241,8 +241,8 @@ class RequestHandlerComponentTest extends CakeTestCase {
 		$_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] = 'PUT';
 		$_SERVER['CONTENT_TYPE'] = 'application/xml';
 		$this->RequestHandler->startup($this->Controller);
-		$this->assertTrue(is_object($this->Controller->data));
-		$this->assertEqual(strtolower(get_class($this->Controller->data)), 'xml');
+		$this->assertTrue(is_array($this->Controller->data));
+		$this->assertFalse(is_object($this->Controller->data));
 	}
 
 /**
@@ -254,8 +254,8 @@ class RequestHandlerComponentTest extends CakeTestCase {
 		$_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] = 'PUT';
 		$_SERVER['CONTENT_TYPE'] = 'application/xml; charset=UTF-8';
 		$this->RequestHandler->startup($this->Controller);
-		$this->assertTrue(is_object($this->Controller->data));
-		$this->assertEqual(strtolower(get_class($this->Controller->data)), 'xml');
+		$this->assertTrue(is_array($this->Controller->data));
+		$this->assertFalse(is_object($this->Controller->data));
 	}
 
 /**