diff --git a/include/libxml/entities.h b/include/libxml/entities.h
index 96029ba1..26a8bc42 100644
--- a/include/libxml/entities.h
+++ b/include/libxml/entities.h
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@
 #define __XML_ENTITIES_H__
 
 #include <libxml/xmlversion.h>
+#define XML_TREE_INTERNALS
 #include <libxml/tree.h>
+#undef XML_TREE_INTERNALS
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 extern "C" {
diff --git a/include/libxml/parser.h b/include/libxml/parser.h
index ead922e9..0231fd7e 100644
--- a/include/libxml/parser.h
+++ b/include/libxml/parser.h
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@
 #define __XML_PARSER_H__
 
 #include <libxml/xmlversion.h>
+#define XML_TREE_INTERNALS
 #include <libxml/tree.h>
+#undef XML_TREE_INTERNALS
 #include <libxml/dict.h>
 #include <libxml/hash.h>
 #include <libxml/valid.h>
diff --git a/include/libxml/tree.h b/include/libxml/tree.h
index dca20318..409edcb6 100644
--- a/include/libxml/tree.h
+++ b/include/libxml/tree.h
@@ -9,6 +9,15 @@
  * Author: Daniel Veillard
  */
 
+#ifndef XML_TREE_INTERNALS
+
+/*
+ * Emulate circular dependency for backward compatibility
+ */
+#include <libxml/parser.h>
+
+#else /* XML_TREE_INTERNALS */
+
 #ifndef __XML_TREE_H__
 #define __XML_TREE_H__
 
@@ -1374,3 +1383,5 @@ XML_DEPRECATED XMLPUBFUN int
 
 #endif /* __XML_TREE_H__ */
 
+#endif /* XML_TREE_INTERNALS */
+
diff --git a/include/libxml/valid.h b/include/libxml/valid.h
index 361e9655..b9db720e 100644
--- a/include/libxml/valid.h
+++ b/include/libxml/valid.h
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@
 
 #include <libxml/xmlversion.h>
 #include <libxml/xmlerror.h>
+#define XML_TREE_INTERNALS
 #include <libxml/tree.h>
+#undef XML_TREE_INTERNALS
 #include <libxml/list.h>
 #include <libxml/xmlautomata.h>
 #include <libxml/xmlregexp.h>
diff --git a/include/libxml/xmlIO.h b/include/libxml/xmlIO.h
index 81f850e2..eeefd13a 100644
--- a/include/libxml/xmlIO.h
+++ b/include/libxml/xmlIO.h
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <libxml/xmlversion.h>
 #include <libxml/encoding.h>
+#define XML_TREE_INTERNALS
 #include <libxml/tree.h>
+#undef XML_TREE_INTERNALS
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 extern "C" {