diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Translation/Loader/XliffFileLoader.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Translation/Loader/XliffFileLoader.php
index d2b5407f82e1f..109f35b7268a2 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Translation/Loader/XliffFileLoader.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Translation/Loader/XliffFileLoader.php
@@ -48,14 +48,14 @@ public function load($resource, $locale, $domain = 'messages')
         foreach ($xml->xpath('//xliff:trans-unit') as $translation) {
             $attributes = $translation->attributes();
 
-            if (!(isset($attributes['resname']) || isset($translation->source)) || !isset($translation->target)) {
+            if (!(isset($attributes['resname']) || isset($translation->source))) {
                 continue;
             }
 
             $source = isset($attributes['resname']) && $attributes['resname'] ? $attributes['resname'] : $translation->source;
             // If the xlf file has another encoding specified, try to convert it because
             // simple_xml will always return utf-8 encoded values
-            $target = $this->utf8ToCharset((string) $translation->target, $encoding);
+            $target = $this->utf8ToCharset((string) (isset($translation->target) ? $translation->target : $source), $encoding);
 
             $catalogue->set((string) $source, $target, $domain);
 
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Translation/Tests/Loader/XliffFileLoaderTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Translation/Tests/Loader/XliffFileLoaderTest.php
index c3d65b493202e..adeabe8c06f26 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Translation/Tests/Loader/XliffFileLoaderTest.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Translation/Tests/Loader/XliffFileLoaderTest.php
@@ -55,8 +55,7 @@ public function testIncompleteResource()
         $loader = new XliffFileLoader();
         $catalogue = $loader->load(__DIR__.'/../fixtures/resources.xlf', 'en', 'domain1');
 
-        $this->assertEquals(array('foo' => 'bar', 'key' => '', 'test' => 'with'), $catalogue->all('domain1'));
-        $this->assertFalse($catalogue->has('extra', 'domain1'));
+        $this->assertEquals(array('foo' => 'bar', 'extra' => 'extra', 'key' => '', 'test' => 'with'), $catalogue->all('domain1'));
     }
 
     public function testEncoding()
@@ -136,7 +135,8 @@ public function testLoadNotes()
 
         $this->assertEquals(array('notes' => array(array('priority' => 1, 'content' => 'foo'))), $catalogue->getMetadata('foo', 'domain1'));
         // message without target
-        $this->assertNull($catalogue->getMetadata('extra', 'domain1'));
+        $this->assertEquals(array('notes' => array(array('content' => 'bar', 'from' => 'foo'))), $catalogue->getMetadata('extra', 'domain1'));
+        // message with empty target
         $this->assertEquals(array('notes' => array(array('content' => 'baz'), array('priority' => 2, 'from' => 'bar', 'content' => 'qux'))), $catalogue->getMetadata('key', 'domain1'));
     }
 }