diff --git a/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java b/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java
index d1ff7d99552..659baacfac7 100644
--- a/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java
+++ b/org.springframework.web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandler.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2010 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2011 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.
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ public class DefaultResponseErrorHandler implements ResponseErrorHandler {
 		HttpStatus statusCode = response.getStatusCode();
 		MediaType contentType = response.getHeaders().getContentType();
 		Charset charset = contentType != null ? contentType.getCharSet() : null;
-		byte[] body = FileCopyUtils.copyToByteArray(response.getBody());
+		byte[] body = getResponseBody(response);
 		switch (statusCode.series()) {
 			case CLIENT_ERROR:
 				throw new HttpClientErrorException(statusCode, response.getStatusText(), body, charset);
@@ -80,5 +80,14 @@ public class DefaultResponseErrorHandler implements ResponseErrorHandler {
 		}
 	}
 
+	private byte[] getResponseBody(ClientHttpResponse response) {
+		try {
+			return FileCopyUtils.copyToByteArray(response.getBody());
+		}
+		catch (IOException e) {
+			return new byte[0];
+		}
+	}
+
 }
 
diff --git a/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandlerTests.java b/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandlerTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..67a11a7c8de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/client/DefaultResponseErrorHandlerTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2011 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.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.web.client;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
+import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
+import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
+import org.springframework.http.client.ClientHttpResponse;
+
+import static org.easymock.EasyMock.*;
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+/** @author Arjen Poutsma */
+public class DefaultResponseErrorHandlerTests {
+
+	private DefaultResponseErrorHandler handler;
+
+	private ClientHttpResponse response;
+
+	@Before
+	public void setUp() throws Exception {
+		handler = new DefaultResponseErrorHandler();
+		response = createMock(ClientHttpResponse.class);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void hasErrorTrue() throws Exception {
+		expect(response.getStatusCode()).andReturn(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
+
+		replay(response);
+		assertTrue(handler.hasError(response));
+
+		verify(response);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void hasErrorFalse() throws Exception {
+		expect(response.getStatusCode()).andReturn(HttpStatus.OK);
+
+		replay(response);
+		assertFalse(handler.hasError(response));
+
+		verify(response);
+	}
+
+	@Test(expected = HttpClientErrorException.class)
+	public void handleError() throws Exception {
+		HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
+		headers.setContentType(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN);
+
+		expect(response.getStatusCode()).andReturn(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
+		expect(response.getStatusText()).andReturn("Not Found");
+		expect(response.getHeaders()).andReturn(headers);
+		expect(response.getBody()).andReturn(new ByteArrayInputStream("Hello World".getBytes("UTF-8")));
+
+		replay(response);
+
+		handler.handleError(response);
+
+		verify(response);
+	}
+
+	@Test(expected = HttpClientErrorException.class)
+	public void handleErrorIOException() throws Exception {
+		HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
+		headers.setContentType(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN);
+
+		expect(response.getStatusCode()).andReturn(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
+		expect(response.getStatusText()).andReturn("Not Found");
+		expect(response.getHeaders()).andReturn(headers);
+		expect(response.getBody()).andThrow(new IOException());
+
+		replay(response);
+
+		handler.handleError(response);
+
+		verify(response);
+	}
+}