diff --git a/org.springframework.core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/SimpleNamespaceContext.java b/org.springframework.core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/SimpleNamespaceContext.java
index 4e8d6cbee76..95ddc18b610 100644
--- a/org.springframework.core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/SimpleNamespaceContext.java
+++ b/org.springframework.core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/SimpleNamespaceContext.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2009 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2010 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ public class SimpleNamespaceContext implements NamespaceContext {
 	 *
 	 * @return the declared prefixes
 	 */
-	public Iterator getBoundPrefixes() {
+	public Iterator<String> getBoundPrefixes() {
 		return prefixToNamespaceUri.keySet().iterator();
 	}
 
diff --git a/org.springframework.core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/StaxStreamContentHandler.java b/org.springframework.core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/StaxStreamContentHandler.java
index 87fd256c388..0e2c7859ecb 100644
--- a/org.springframework.core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/StaxStreamContentHandler.java
+++ b/org.springframework.core/src/main/java/org/springframework/util/xml/StaxStreamContentHandler.java
@@ -90,15 +90,17 @@ class StaxStreamContentHandler extends AbstractStaxContentHandler {
 	protected void startElementInternal(QName name, Attributes attributes, SimpleNamespaceContext namespaceContext)
 			throws XMLStreamException {
 		streamWriter.writeStartElement(name.getPrefix(), name.getLocalPart(), name.getNamespaceURI());
-		String defaultNamespaceUri = namespaceContext.getNamespaceURI("");
-		if (StringUtils.hasLength(defaultNamespaceUri)) {
-			streamWriter.writeNamespace("", defaultNamespaceUri);
-			streamWriter.setDefaultNamespace(defaultNamespaceUri);
-		}
-		for (Iterator iterator = namespaceContext.getBoundPrefixes(); iterator.hasNext();) {
-			String prefix = (String) iterator.next();
-			streamWriter.writeNamespace(prefix, namespaceContext.getNamespaceURI(prefix));
-			streamWriter.setPrefix(prefix, namespaceContext.getNamespaceURI(prefix));
+		if (namespaceContext != null) {
+			String defaultNamespaceUri = namespaceContext.getNamespaceURI("");
+			if (StringUtils.hasLength(defaultNamespaceUri)) {
+				streamWriter.writeNamespace("", defaultNamespaceUri);
+				streamWriter.setDefaultNamespace(defaultNamespaceUri);
+			}
+			for (Iterator<String> iterator = namespaceContext.getBoundPrefixes(); iterator.hasNext();) {
+				String prefix = iterator.next();
+				streamWriter.writeNamespace(prefix, namespaceContext.getNamespaceURI(prefix));
+				streamWriter.setPrefix(prefix, namespaceContext.getNamespaceURI(prefix));
+			}
 		}
 		for (int i = 0; i < attributes.getLength(); i++) {
 			QName attrName = toQName(attributes.getURI(i), attributes.getQName(i));