diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 4efd27d57..54be3f1bd 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ Changes that could break older environments:
 * The <script> task now requires Apache BSF instead of the older IBM
   version.  See <http://jakarta.apache.org/bsf/>
 
+* <xmlproperty> will no longer fail if the file to be loaded doesn't exist.
+
 Fixed bugs:
 -----------
 * <translate> was not ignoring comment lines.
@@ -168,8 +170,6 @@ Other changes:
   works for the code generated by the Sun java compiler. It may not work for
   all compilers.
 
-* <xmlproperty> will no longer fail if the file to be loaded doesn't exist.
-
 Changes from Ant 1.5.1Beta1 to 1.5.1
 ====================================
 
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/DOMElementWriter.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/DOMElementWriter.java
index c2b342153..4c8cec6ad 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/DOMElementWriter.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/util/DOMElementWriter.java
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * The Apache Software License, Version 1.1
  *
- * Copyright (c) 2000-2002 The Apache Software Foundation.  All rights
+ * Copyright (c) 2000-2003 The Apache Software Foundation.  All rights
  * reserved.
  *
  * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
@@ -242,8 +242,15 @@ public class DOMElementWriter {
     /**
      * Drop characters that are illegal in XML documents.
      *
+     * <p>Also ensure that we are not including an <code>]]&gt;</code>
+     * marker by replacing that sequence with
+     * <code>&amp;x5d;&amp;x5d;&amp;gt;</code>.</p>
+     *
      * <p>See XML 1.0 2.2 <a
-     * href="http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210#charsets">http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210#charsets</a>.</p>
+     * href="http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210#charsets">http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210#charsets</a>. and
+     * 2.7 <a
+     * href="http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210#sec-cdata-sect">http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210#sec-cdata-sect</a></p>
+
      */
     public String encodedata(final String value) {
         sb.setLength(0);
@@ -253,7 +260,18 @@ public class DOMElementWriter {
                 sb.append(c);
             }
         }
-        return sb.toString();
+
+        String result = sb.toString();
+        int cdEnd = result.indexOf("]]>");
+        while (cdEnd != -1) {
+            sb.setLength(cdEnd);
+            sb.append("&x5d;&x5d;&gt;")
+                .append(result.substring(cdEnd+3));
+            result = sb.toString();
+            cdEnd = result.indexOf("]]>");
+        }
+        
+        return result;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/util/DOMElementWriterTest.java b/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/util/DOMElementWriterTest.java
index a14aef45a..54e98cdb3 100644
--- a/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/util/DOMElementWriterTest.java
+++ b/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/util/DOMElementWriterTest.java
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * The Apache Software License, Version 1.1
  *
- * Copyright (c) 2000-2002 The Apache Software Foundation.  All rights
+ * Copyright (c) 2000-2003 The Apache Software Foundation.  All rights
  * reserved.
  *
  * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
@@ -119,4 +119,15 @@ public class DOMElementWriterTest extends TestCase {
         assertTrue("0xFFFD", w.isLegalCharacter('\uFFFD'));
         assertTrue("0xFFFE", !w.isLegalCharacter('\uFFFE'));
     }
+
+    public void testCDATAEndEncoding() {
+        assertEquals("]>", w.encodedata("]>"));
+        assertEquals("]]", w.encodedata("]]"));
+        assertEquals("&x5d;&x5d;&gt;", w.encodedata("]]>"));
+        assertEquals("&x5d;&x5d;&gt;A", w.encodedata("]]>A"));
+        assertEquals("A&x5d;&x5d;&gt;", w.encodedata("A]]>"));
+        assertEquals("A&x5d;&x5d;&gt;A", w.encodedata("A]]>A"));
+        assertEquals("A&x5d;&x5d;&gt;B&x5d;&x5d;&gt;C",
+                     w.encodedata("A]]>B]]>C"));
+    }
 }