diff --git a/cake/libs/xml.php b/cake/libs/xml.php
index c82cd65e7..fa783ffd1 100644
--- a/cake/libs/xml.php
+++ b/cake/libs/xml.php
@@ -85,12 +85,18 @@ class Xml {
 					} elseif ($value === null) {
 						$value = '';
 					}
-					if ($format === 'tags') {
+					if ($key[0] !== '@' && $format === 'tags') {
 						$node->addChild($key, $value);
 					} else {
+						if ($key[0] === '@') {
+							$key = substr($key, 1);
+						}
 						$node->addAttribute($key, $value);
 					}
 				} else {
+					if ($key[0] === '@') {
+						throw new Exception(__('Invalid array'));
+					}
 					if (array_keys($value) === range(0, count($value) - 1)) { // List
 						foreach ($value as $item) {
 							$child = $node->addChild($key);
diff --git a/cake/tests/cases/libs/xml.test.php b/cake/tests/cases/libs/xml.test.php
index 1f2553cb5..1b5d77d0e 100644
--- a/cake/tests/cases/libs/xml.test.php
+++ b/cake/tests/cases/libs/xml.test.php
@@ -157,6 +157,24 @@ class XmlTest extends CakeTestCase {
 		$this->assertIdentical((string)$obj->string, 'ok');
 		$this->assertIdentical((string)$obj->null, '');
 		$this->assertIdentical((string)$obj->array, '');
+
+		$xml = array(
+			'tags' => array(
+				'tag' => array(
+					array(
+						'@id' => '1',
+						'name' => 'defect'
+					),
+					array(
+						'@id' => '2',
+						'name' => 'enhancement'
+					)
+				)
+			)
+		);
+		$obj = Xml::fromArray($xml, 'tags');
+		$xmlText = '<' . '?xml version="1.0"?><tags><tag id="1"><name>defect</name></tag><tag id="2"><name>enhancement</name></tag></tags>';
+		$this->assertEqual(str_replace(array("\r", "\n"), '', $obj->asXML()), $xmlText);
 	}
 
 /**
@@ -219,6 +237,26 @@ class XmlTest extends CakeTestCase {
 			$this->assertEqual($e->getMessage(), __('Invalid array'));
 		}
 
+		try {
+			$xml = array(
+				'tags' => array(
+					'@tag' => array(
+						array(
+							'@id' => '1',
+							'name' => 'defect'
+						),
+						array(
+							'@id' => '2',
+							'name' => 'enhancement'
+						)
+					)
+				)
+			);
+			$obj = Xml::fromArray($xml);
+			$this->fail('No exception thrown');
+		} catch (Exception $e) {
+			$this->assertEqual($e->getMessage(), __('Invalid array'));
+		}
 	}
 
 /**
@@ -302,6 +340,7 @@ class XmlTest extends CakeTestCase {
 			)
 		);
 		$this->assertEqual(Xml::toArray(Xml::fromArray($array)), $expected);
+		$this->assertEqual(Xml::toArray(Xml::fromArray($array, 'tags')), $array);
 
 		$array = array(
 			'tags' => array(