diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 7a896217..fe9f69b8 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+Tue Oct  2 11:27:58 CEST 2001 Daniel Veillard <daniel@veillard.com>
+
+	* valid.c: close bug #61550 when xml: wasn't considered a namespace
+
 Tue Oct  2 11:18:32 CEST 2001 Daniel Veillard <daniel@veillard.com>
 
 	* win32/dsp/libxml2.def.src: Igor Zlatkovic patches
diff --git a/valid.c b/valid.c
index 29bfcfad..723ada4c 100644
--- a/valid.c
+++ b/valid.c
@@ -344,10 +344,12 @@ xmlSplitQName2(const xmlChar *name, xmlChar **prefix) {
 
     *prefix = NULL;
 
+#ifndef XML_XML_NAMESPACE
     /* xml: prefix is not really a namespace */
     if ((name[0] == 'x') && (name[1] == 'm') &&
         (name[2] == 'l') && (name[3] == ':'))
 	return(NULL);
+#endif
 
     /* nasty but valid */
     if (name[0] == ':')