diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php
index a88fc05c8cb65..de685edabbf41 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ final protected function isElementNameValid($name)
     {
         return $name &&
             false === strpos($name, ' ') &&
-            preg_match('#^[\pL_][\pL0-9._-]*$#ui', $name);
+            preg_match('#^[\pL_][\pL0-9._:-]*$#ui', $name);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -234,42 +234,81 @@ private function parseXml(\SimpleXmlElement $node)
                 $data['@'.$attrkey] = (string) $attr;
             }
         }
-        foreach ($node->children() as $key => $subnode) {
-            if ($subnode->count()) {
-                $value = $this->parseXml($subnode);
-            } elseif ($subnode->attributes()) {
-                $value = array();
-                foreach ($subnode->attributes() as $attrkey => $attr) {
-                    $value['@'.$attrkey] = (string) $attr;
-                }
-                $value['#'] = (string) $subnode;
-            } else {
-                $value = (string) $subnode;
-            }
 
-            if ($key === 'item') {
-                if (isset($value['@key'])) {
-                    if (isset($value['#'])) {
-                        $data[$value['@key']] = $value['#'];
-                    } else {
-                        $data[$value['@key']] = $value;
+        // Parse documents with namespaces
+        if ($namespaces = $node->getDocNamespaces()) {
+            foreach ($namespaces as $prefix => $namespace) {
+                // Build strings for node namespace prefixes and root node xmlns attribute names
+                $xmlns  = 'xmlns';
+                if (!empty($prefix)) {
+                    $xmlns = $xmlns.':'.$prefix;
+                    $prefix = $prefix.':';
+                }
+                // Add the namespaces as attributes to the root node 
+                if (!count($node->xpath("parent::*"))) {
+                    $data['@'.$xmlns] = (string) $namespace;
+                }
+                // Parse attributes in namespace
+                if ($node->attributes($namespace)) {
+                    foreach ($node->attributes($namespace) as $attrkey => $attr) {
+                        $data['@'.$prefix.$attrkey] = (string) $attr;
                     }
-                } else {
-                    $data['item'][] = $value;
                 }
-            } elseif (array_key_exists($key, $data) || $key == "entry") {
-                if ((false === is_array($data[$key]))  || (false === isset($data[$key][0]))) {
-                    $data[$key] = array($data[$key]);
+                // Parse children in namespace
+                foreach ($node->children($namespace) as $key => $subnode) {
+                    $this->parseXmlSubnode($data, $subnode, $prefix.$key);
                 }
-                $data[$key][] = $value;
-            } else {
-                $data[$key] = $value;
+            }
+        } else { // XML doc has no (root) namespaces
+            // Parse children
+            foreach ($node->children() as $key => $subnode) {
+                $this->parseXmlSubnode($data, $subnode, $key);
             }
         }
 
         return $data;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Parse the input SimpleXmlElement into an array.
+     *
+     * @param array             $data       array to fill
+     * @param \SimpleXMLElement $subnode    xml to parse
+     * @param string            $key        name of the subnode including any namespace prefix
+     */
+    private function parseXmlSubnode(&$data, \SimpleXMLElement $subnode, $key)
+    {
+        if ($subnode->count()) {
+            $value = $this->parseXml($subnode);
+        } elseif ($subnode->attributes()) {
+            $value = array();
+            foreach ($subnode->attributes() as $attrkey => $attr) {
+                $value['@'.$attrkey] = (string) $attr;
+            }
+            $value['#'] = (string) $subnode;
+        } else {
+            $value = (string) $subnode;
+        }
+        if ($key === 'item') {
+            if (isset($value['@key'])) {
+                if (isset($value['#'])) {
+                    $data[(string) $value['@key']] = $value['#'];
+                } else {
+                    $data[(string) $value['@key']] = $value;
+                }
+            } else {
+                $data['item'][] = $value;
+            }
+        } elseif (array_key_exists($key, $data) || $key == "entry") {
+            if ((false === is_array($data[$key]))  || (false === isset($data[$key][0]))) {
+                $data[$key] = array($data[$key]);
+            }
+            $data[$key][] = $value;
+        } else {
+            $data[$key] = $value;
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Parse the data and convert it to DOMElements
      *
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php
index 04489abb004f9..ebd6dd9d49ece 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php
@@ -201,6 +201,14 @@ public function testEncode()
         $this->assertEquals($source, $this->encoder->encode($obj, 'xml'));
     }
 
+    public function testEncodeWithNamespace()
+    {
+        $source = $this->getNamespacedXmlSource();
+        $array = $this->getNamespacedArray();
+
+        $this->assertEquals($source, $this->encoder->encode($array, 'xml'));
+    }
+
     public function testEncodeSerializerXmlRootNodeNameOption()
     {
         $options = array('xml_root_node_name' => 'test');
@@ -226,6 +234,14 @@ public function testDecode()
         $this->assertEquals(get_object_vars($obj), $this->encoder->decode($source, 'xml'));
     }
 
+    public function testDecodeWithNamespace()
+    {
+        $source = $this->getNamespacedXmlSource();
+        $array = $this->getNamespacedArray();
+
+        $this->assertEquals($array, $this->encoder->decode($source, 'xml'));
+    }
+
     public function testDecodeScalarWithAttribute()
     {
         $source = '<?xml version="1.0"?>'."\n".
@@ -350,6 +366,53 @@ protected function getXmlSource()
             '</response>'."\n";
     }
 
+    protected function getNamespacedXmlSource()
+    {
+        return '<?xml version="1.0"?>'."\n".
+            '<response xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:yt="http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007">'.
+            '<qux>1</qux>'.
+            '<app:foo>foo</app:foo>'.
+            '<yt:bar>a</yt:bar><yt:bar>b</yt:bar>'.
+            '<media:baz><media:key>val</media:key><media:key2>val</media:key2><item key="A B">bar</item>'.
+            '<item><title>Codestin Search App</title></item><item><title>Codestin Search App</title></item>'.
+            '<Barry size="large"><FooBar gd:id="1"><Baz>Ed</Baz></FooBar></Barry></media:baz>'.
+            '</response>'."\n";
+    }
+
+    protected function getNamespacedArray()
+    {
+        return array(
+            '@xmlns'       => 'http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom', 
+            '@xmlns:app'   => 'http://www.w3.org/2007/app', 
+            '@xmlns:media' => 'http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/',
+            '@xmlns:gd'    => 'http://schemas.google.com/g/2005',
+            '@xmlns:yt'    => 'http://gdata.youtube.com/schemas/2007',
+            'qux' => "1",
+            'app:foo' => "foo",
+            'yt:bar' => array("a", "b"),
+            'media:baz' => array(
+                'media:key' => "val",
+                'media:key2' => "val",
+                'A B' => "bar",
+                'item' => array(
+                    array(
+                        'title' => 'title1',
+                    ), 
+                    array(
+                        'title' => 'title2',
+                    )
+                ),
+                'Barry' => array(
+                    '@size' => 'large',
+                    'FooBar' => array(
+                        '@gd:id' => '1',
+                        'Baz'    => 'Ed',
+                    ),
+                ),
+            ),
+        );
+    }
+
     protected function getObject()
     {
         $obj = new Dummy;