--- a/src/tools/xml_tools.py	Tue Jan 19 14:59:13 2016 +0100
+++ b/src/tools/xml_tools.py	Fri Jan 22 20:24:17 2016 +0100
@@ -1326,11 +1326,19 @@
     (c) Karl Anderson
     """
 
-    def __call__(self, raw_xml, force_spaces=False):
+    def __call__(self, raw_xml, force_spaces=False, namespace=None):
         """
         @param raw_xml(unicode): the raw XML
-        @param force_spaces: if True, replace occurrences of '\n' and '\t' with ' '.
+        @param force_spaces (bool): if True, replace occurrences of '\n' and '\t' with ' '.
+        @param namespace(unicode, None): if set, use this namespace for the wrapping element
         """
+        # we need to wrap element in case
+        # there is not a unique one on the top
+        if namespace is not None:
+            raw_xml = u"<div xmlns='{}'>{}</div>".format(namespace, raw_xml)
+        else:
+            raw_xml = u"<div>{}</div>".format(raw_xml)
+
         self.result = None
 
         def onStart(elem):
@@ -1351,7 +1359,12 @@
             raw_xml = raw_xml.replace('\n', ' ').replace('\t', ' ')
         tmp.addRawXml(raw_xml)
         parser.parse(tmp.toXml().encode('utf-8'))
-        return self.result.firstChildElement()
+        top_elt = self.result.firstChildElement()
+        # we now can check if there was a unique element on the top
+        # and remove our wrapping <div/> is this was the case
+        if len(top_elt.children) == 1:
+            top_elt = top_elt.firstChildElement()
+        return top_elt
 
 
 # FIXME: this method is duplicated from frontends.tools.xmlui.getText