diff --git a/extensions/xmlextras/base/src/nsXMLHttpRequest.cpp b/extensions/xmlextras/base/src/nsXMLHttpRequest.cpp
index 03f9d469b50b..bac2b0afbbf6 100644
--- a/extensions/xmlextras/base/src/nsXMLHttpRequest.cpp
+++ b/extensions/xmlextras/base/src/nsXMLHttpRequest.cpp
@@ -1579,6 +1579,11 @@ nsXMLHttpRequest::Send(nsIVariant *aBody)
     listener = this;
   }
 
+  // Since we expect XML data, set the type hint accordingly
+  // This means that we always try to parse local files as XML
+  // ignoring return value, as this is not critical
+  mChannel->SetContentType(NS_LITERAL_CSTRING("application/xml"));
+
   // Start reading from the channel
   ChangeState(XML_HTTP_REQUEST_SENT);
   rv = mChannel->AsyncOpen(listener, nsnull);
diff --git a/extensions/xmlextras/tests/TestXMLExtras.cpp b/extensions/xmlextras/tests/TestXMLExtras.cpp
index 441b0393bc91..0d47821c6bf8 100644
--- a/extensions/xmlextras/tests/TestXMLExtras.cpp
+++ b/extensions/xmlextras/tests/TestXMLExtras.cpp
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@
 #include <nsIDOMLoadListener.h>
 #include "nsContentCID.h"
 #include "nsReadableUtils.h"
+#include "nsNativeCharsetUtils.h"
 static NS_DEFINE_CID( kXMLDocumentCID, NS_XMLDOCUMENT_CID );
 
 #if 0
@@ -152,7 +153,8 @@ int main (int argc, char* argv[])
                                      &rv );
 
       if (NS_SUCCEEDED( rv )) {
-        nsString str; str.AssignWithConversion(argv[2]);
+        nsString str;
+        NS_CopyNativeToUnicode(nsDependentCString(argv[2]), str);
         rv = pDOMParser->ParseFromString(str.get(), "application/xml",
                                           getter_AddRefs( pDOMDocument ) );