diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php
index 9ca8c59091..7fbde8e615 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php
@@ -188,14 +188,11 @@ class XmlEncoder extends SerializerAwareEncoder implements EncoderInterface, Dec
                 $value = (string) $subnode;
             }
 
-            if ($key === '*item') {
+            if ($key === 'item') {
                 if (isset($value['@key'])) {
                     $data[(string) $value['@key']] = $value['#'];
-                } elseif (isset($data['*item'])) {
-                    $tmp = $data['*item'];
-                    unset($data['*item']);
-                    $data[] = $tmp;
-                    $data[] = $value;
+                } else {
+                    $data['item'][] = $value;
                 }
             } elseif (array_key_exists($key, $data)) {
                 if ((false === is_array($data[$key]))  || (false === isset($data[$key][0]))) {
diff --git a/tests/Symfony/Tests/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php b/tests/Symfony/Tests/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php
index 22bff31a62..49d7a86142 100644
--- a/tests/Symfony/Tests/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php
+++ b/tests/Symfony/Tests/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php
@@ -239,6 +239,7 @@ class XmlEncoderTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
             '<foo><![CDATA[foo]]></foo>'.
             '<bar><![CDATA[a]]></bar><bar><![CDATA[b]]></bar>'.
             '<baz><key><![CDATA[val]]></key><key2><![CDATA[val]]></key2><item key="A B"><![CDATA[bar]]></item>'.
+            '<item><title><![CDATA[title1]]></title></item><item><title><![CDATA[title2]]></title></item>'.
             '<Barry><FooBar id="1"><Baz><![CDATA[Ed]]></Baz></FooBar></Barry></baz>'.
             '<qux>1</qux>'.
             '</response>'."\n";
@@ -249,7 +250,7 @@ class XmlEncoderTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
         $obj = new Dummy;
         $obj->foo = 'foo';
         $obj->bar = array('a', 'b');
-        $obj->baz = array('key' => 'val', 'key2' => 'val', 'A B' => 'bar', "Barry" => array('FooBar' => array("Baz"=>"Ed", "@id"=>1)));
+        $obj->baz = array('key' => 'val', 'key2' => 'val', 'A B' => 'bar', 'item' => array(array('title' => 'title1'), array('title' => 'title2')), 'Barry' => array('FooBar' => array('Baz' => 'Ed', '@id' => 1)));
         $obj->qux = "1";
 
         return $obj;