diff --git a/src/libutil/xml-writer.cc b/src/libutil/xml-writer.cc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2699449095
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/libutil/xml-writer.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,161 @@
+#include <iostream>
+#include <string>
+#include <list>
+#include <map>
+#include <assert.h>
+using namespace std;
+
+
+typedef map<string, string> XMLAttrs;
+
+
+class XMLWriter
+{
+private:
+    
+    ostream & output;
+
+    bool closed;
+
+    list<string> pendingElems;
+
+public:
+
+    XMLWriter(ostream & output);
+    ~XMLWriter();
+
+    void close();
+
+    void openElement(const string & name,
+        const XMLAttrs & attrs = XMLAttrs());
+    void closeElement();
+
+    void writeShortElement(const string & name,
+        const XMLAttrs & attrs = XMLAttrs());
+    
+    void writeCharData(const string & data);
+
+private:
+    void writeAttrs(const XMLAttrs & attrs);
+};
+
+
+class XMLOpenElement
+{
+private:
+    XMLWriter & writer;
+public:
+    XMLOpenElement(XMLWriter & writer, const string & name,
+        const XMLAttrs & attrs = XMLAttrs())
+        : writer(writer)
+    {
+        writer.openElement(name, attrs);
+    }
+    ~XMLOpenElement()
+    {
+        writer.closeElement();
+    }
+};
+
+
+XMLWriter::XMLWriter(ostream & output)
+    : output(output)
+{
+    output << "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>\n";
+    closed = false;
+}
+
+
+XMLWriter::~XMLWriter()
+{
+    close();
+}
+
+
+void XMLWriter::close()
+{
+    if (closed) return;
+    while (!pendingElems.empty()) closeElement();
+    closed = true;
+}
+
+
+void XMLWriter::openElement(const string & name,
+    const XMLAttrs & attrs)
+{
+    assert(!closed);
+    output << "<" << name;
+    writeAttrs(attrs);
+    output << ">";
+    pendingElems.push_back(name);
+}
+
+
+void XMLWriter::closeElement()
+{
+    assert(!pendingElems.empty());
+    output << "</" << pendingElems.back() << ">";
+    pendingElems.pop_back();
+    if (pendingElems.empty()) closed = true;
+}
+
+
+void XMLWriter::writeShortElement(const string & name,
+    const XMLAttrs & attrs)
+{
+    assert(!closed);
+    output << "<" << name;
+    writeAttrs(attrs);
+    output << " />";
+}
+
+
+void XMLWriter::writeCharData(const string & data)
+{
+    assert(!pendingElems.empty());
+    for (unsigned int i = 0; i < data.size(); ++i) {
+        char c = data[i];
+        if (c == '<') output << "&lt;";
+        else if (c == '&') output << "&amp;";
+        else output << c;
+    }
+}
+
+
+void XMLWriter::writeAttrs(const XMLAttrs & attrs)
+{
+    for (XMLAttrs::const_iterator i = attrs.begin(); i != attrs.end(); ++i) {
+        output << " " << i->first << "=\"";
+        for (unsigned int j = 0; j < i->second.size(); ++j) {
+            char c = i->second[j];
+            if (c == '"') output << "&quot;";
+            else if (c == '<') output << "&lt;";
+            else if (c == '&') output << "&amp;";
+            else output << c;
+        }
+        output << "\"";
+    }
+}
+
+
+int main(int argc, char * * argv)
+{
+    XMLWriter doc(cout);
+    
+    //    OpenElement e(doc, "foo");
+
+    doc.openElement("foo");
+
+    doc.writeCharData("dit is een test &\n");
+    doc.writeCharData("<foo>\n");
+
+    for (int i = 0; i < 5; ++i) {
+        XMLAttrs attrs;
+        attrs["a"] = "b";
+        attrs["bla"] = "<foo>'&\">";
+        XMLOpenElement e(doc, "item", attrs);
+        doc.writeCharData("x");
+    }
+
+    return 0;
+}