diff --git a/src/ol/xml.js b/src/ol/xml.js
index 80c5ec1a99..5f1f3991e4 100644
--- a/src/ol/xml.js
+++ b/src/ol/xml.js
@@ -42,37 +42,12 @@ ol.xml.DOCUMENT = goog.dom.xml.createDocument();
  * @param {string} namespaceURI Namespace URI.
  * @param {string} qualifiedName Qualified name.
  * @return {Node} Node.
- * @private
  */
-ol.xml.createElementNS_ = function(namespaceURI, qualifiedName) {
+ol.xml.createElementNS = function(namespaceURI, qualifiedName) {
   return ol.xml.DOCUMENT.createElementNS(namespaceURI, qualifiedName);
 };
 
 
-/**
- * @param {string} namespaceURI Namespace URI.
- * @param {string} qualifiedName Qualified name.
- * @return {Node} Node.
- * @private
- */
-ol.xml.createElementNSActiveX_ = function(namespaceURI, qualifiedName) {
-  if (!namespaceURI) {
-    namespaceURI = '';
-  }
-  return ol.xml.DOCUMENT.createNode(1, qualifiedName, namespaceURI);
-};
-
-
-/**
- * @param {string} namespaceURI Namespace URI.
- * @param {string} qualifiedName Qualified name.
- * @return {Node} Node.
- */
-ol.xml.createElementNS =
-    (document.implementation && document.implementation.createDocument) ?
-        ol.xml.createElementNS_ : ol.xml.createElementNSActiveX_;
-
-
 /**
  * Recursively grab all text content of child nodes into a single string.
  * @param {Node} node Node.