diff --git a/lib/OpenLayers/Format/XML.js b/lib/OpenLayers/Format/XML.js
index f4c13499c0..d06e1e8317 100644
--- a/lib/OpenLayers/Format/XML.js
+++ b/lib/OpenLayers/Format/XML.js
@@ -848,6 +848,29 @@ OpenLayers.Format.XML = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Format, {
         return uri;
     },
     
+    /**
+     * Method: getXMLDoc
+     * Get an XML document for nodes that are not supported in HTML (e.g.
+     * createCDATASection). On IE, this will either return an existing or
+     * create a new <xmldom> on the instance. On other browsers, this will
+     * either return an existing or create a new shared document (see
+     * <OpenLayers.Format.XML.document>).
+     *
+     * Returns:
+     * {XMLDocument}
+     */
+    getXMLDoc: function() {
+        if (!OpenLayers.Format.XML.document && !this.xmldom) {
+            if (document.implementation && document.implementation.createDocument) {
+                OpenLayers.Format.XML.document =
+                    document.implementation.createDocument("", "", null);
+            } else if (!this.xmldom && window.ActiveXObject) {
+                this.xmldom = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
+            }
+        }
+        return OpenLayers.Format.XML.document || this.xmldom;
+    },
+
     CLASS_NAME: "OpenLayers.Format.XML" 
 
 });     
@@ -879,3 +902,10 @@ OpenLayers.Format.XML.lookupNamespaceURI = OpenLayers.Function.bind(
     OpenLayers.Format.XML.prototype.lookupNamespaceURI,
     OpenLayers.Format.XML.prototype
 );
+
+/**
+ * Property: OpenLayers.Format.XML.document
+ * {XMLDocument} XML document to reuse for creating non-HTML compliant nodes,
+ * like document.createCDATASection.
+ */
+OpenLayers.Format.XML.document = null;
diff --git a/tests/Format/XML.html b/tests/Format/XML.html
index 12f12afc64..8da8fbf1e3 100644
--- a/tests/Format/XML.html
+++ b/tests/Format/XML.html
@@ -849,6 +849,19 @@
 
     }
     
+    function test_getXMLDoc(t) {
+        t.plan(2);
+        var format = new OpenLayers.Format.XML();
+        var doc = format.getXMLDoc();
+        t.ok(doc !== document, "document returned from getXMLDoc is not the page's html doc");
+        var root = format.createElementNS("http://test", "root");
+        // appending CDATA created from a different document
+        var cdata = doc.createCDATASection("<foo></foo>");
+        root.appendChild(cdata);
+        var result = format.write(root);
+        var expect = '<root xmlns="http://test"><![CDATA[<foo></foo>]]></root>';
+        t.eq(result, expect, "document with CDATA section serialized correctly");
+    }
 
     
     </script>