diff --git a/lib/OpenLayers/Format/WMSCapabilities.js b/lib/OpenLayers/Format/WMSCapabilities.js
index cee33eb832..93cf821015 100644
--- a/lib/OpenLayers/Format/WMSCapabilities.js
+++ b/lib/OpenLayers/Format/WMSCapabilities.js
@@ -65,9 +65,9 @@ OpenLayers.Format.WMSCapabilities = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Format.XML, {
             if(!constr) {
                 throw "Can't find a WMS capabilities parser for version " + version;
             }
-            var parser = new constr(this.options);
+            this.parser = new constr(this.options);
         }
-        var capabilities = parser.read(data);
+        var capabilities = this.parser.read(data);
         capabilities.version = version;
         return capabilities;
     },