diff --git a/resource.c b/resource.c
index 05cd794..7147dfb 100644
--- a/resource.c
+++ b/resource.c
@@ -152,18 +152,20 @@ mkd_cleanup(Document *doc)
 void
 ___mkd_xml(char *p, int size, FILE *out)
 {
-    char c;
+    unsigned char c;
 
     while ( size-- > 0 ) {
-	if ( !isascii(c = *p++) )
-	    continue;
+	c = *p++;
+
 	switch (c) {
-	case '<': fputs("&lt;", out);   break;
-	case '>': fputs("&gt;", out);   break;
-	case '&': fputs("&amp;", out);  break;
-	case '"': fputs("&quot;", out); break;
-	case '\'':fputs("&apos;", out); break;
-	default:  putc(c,out);          break;
+	case '<':   fputs("&lt;", out);   break;
+	case '>':   fputs("&gt;", out);   break;
+	case '&':   fputs("&amp;", out);  break;
+	case '"':   fputs("&quot;", out); break;
+	case '\'':  fputs("&apos;", out); break;
+	default:    if ( isascii(c) || (c & 0x80) )
+			putc(c, out);
+		    break;
 	}
     }
 }
diff --git a/tests/xml.t b/tests/xml.t
index 6418a43..1e3acdf 100644
--- a/tests/xml.t
+++ b/tests/xml.t
@@ -41,4 +41,13 @@ else
     ./echo "ok"
 fi
 
+./echo -n '  xml output with multibyte utf-8 .. '
+
+if ./echo 'tecnología y servicios más confiables' | ./markdown -fcdata | grep 'tecnología y servicios más confiables' >/dev/null; then
+    ./echo "ok"
+else
+    ./echo "FAILED"
+    rc=1
+fi
+
 exit $rc