diff --git a/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/EvalTag.java b/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/EvalTag.java
index 66a6ac61f9f..760ecf6b0f2 100644
--- a/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/EvalTag.java
+++ b/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/EvalTag.java
@@ -99,7 +99,6 @@ public class EvalTag extends HtmlEscapingAwareTag {
 		Expression expression = this.expressionParser.parseExpression(this.expression);
 		EvaluationContext context = createEvaluationContext();
 		if (this.var == null) {
-			// print the url to the writer
 			try {
 				String result = expression.getValue(context, String.class);
 				result = isHtmlEscape() ? HtmlUtils.htmlEscape(result) : result;
@@ -111,7 +110,6 @@ public class EvalTag extends HtmlEscapingAwareTag {
 			}
 		}
 		else {
-			// store the url as a variable
 			pageContext.setAttribute(var, expression.getValue(context), scope);
 		}
 		return EVAL_PAGE;
@@ -129,8 +127,7 @@ public class EvalTag extends HtmlEscapingAwareTag {
 	
 	private ConversionService getConversionService() {
 		try {
-			// TODO replace this with a call to RequestContext that is not brittle
-			return getRequestContext().getWebApplicationContext().getBean("conversionService", ConversionService.class);
+			return (ConversionService) this.pageContext.getRequest().getAttribute("org.springframework.core.convert.ConversionService");
 		} catch (BeansException e) {
 			return null;
 		}
diff --git a/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/AbstractTagTests.java b/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/AbstractTagTests.java
index bc2cc8b7109..ea5b7511e35 100644
--- a/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/AbstractTagTests.java
+++ b/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/AbstractTagTests.java
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ package org.springframework.web.servlet.tags;
 
 import junit.framework.TestCase;
 
-import org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean;
 import org.springframework.mock.web.MockHttpServletRequest;
 import org.springframework.mock.web.MockHttpServletResponse;
 import org.springframework.mock.web.MockPageContext;
@@ -44,8 +43,6 @@ public abstract class AbstractTagTests extends TestCase {
 		SimpleWebApplicationContext wac = new SimpleWebApplicationContext();
 		wac.setServletContext(sc);
 		wac.setNamespace("test");
-		// TODO this name index leads to brittle lookup by EvalTag
-		wac.registerSingleton("conversionService", FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean.class);
 		wac.refresh();
 
 		MockHttpServletRequest request = new MockHttpServletRequest(sc);
diff --git a/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/EvalTagTests.java b/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/EvalTagTests.java
index e415904240b..6ba7d977735 100644
--- a/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/EvalTagTests.java
+++ b/org.springframework.web.servlet/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/tags/EvalTagTests.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import javax.servlet.jsp.tagext.Tag;
 
 import org.springframework.format.annotation.NumberFormat;
 import org.springframework.format.annotation.NumberFormat.Style;
+import org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean;
 import org.springframework.mock.web.MockHttpServletResponse;
 import org.springframework.mock.web.MockPageContext;
 
@@ -33,6 +34,9 @@ public class EvalTagTests extends AbstractTagTests {
 
 	protected void setUp() throws Exception {
 		context = createPageContext();
+		FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean factory = new FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean();
+		factory.afterPropertiesSet();
+		context.getRequest().setAttribute("org.springframework.core.convert.ConversionService", factory.getObject());
 		context.getRequest().setAttribute("bean", new Bean());
 		tag = new EvalTag();
 		tag.setPageContext(context);
@@ -53,7 +57,6 @@ public class EvalTagTests extends AbstractTagTests {
 		assertEquals(Tag.EVAL_BODY_INCLUDE, action);
 		action = tag.doEndTag();
 		assertEquals(Tag.EVAL_PAGE, action);
-		// TODO - fails because EL does not consider annotations on getter/setter method or field for properties (just annotations on method parameters)
 		//assertEquals("25%", ((MockHttpServletResponse)context.getResponse()).getContentAsString());
 	}