XML Parser misbehaves with &

I've come across this frustrating behavior with the XML parser when it reads an escaped ampersand (&amp;) If the xml being evaluated is: <COLORS>Blue, Green &amp; Red</COLORS> it calls the character data handler 3 times: the first time the $data is "Blue, Green " the second time is "&" and the third time is " Red" Needless to say this is screwing up my parser, and the stuff I'm doing won't make it easy to add this allowance. I'm hoping somebody can point out a way to turn off this behavior. If this is the proper operation, is it documented anywhere? I've been unable to find it. -- Jeff Bearer, RHCE Webmaster, PittsburghLIVE.com