Escaping using htmlentities

Hi. htmlentities has worked pretty well so far for me...except when it comes across something like "ñw" or "ñ0w" in an RSS feed (v2) It tries to convert the &ntilde - and it does, but because the ñ doesn't have a space next to the w or the 0w, it breaks the XML and it comes out as ñ0w which, I think, is "bad XML" I thought ampersands were my biggest worry, but this has got me really stumped! I'm not even sure if I'm *right* in thinking the problem is the lack of spaces between the "special" characters. Can anyone shed any light on this? Thanks -- Will The Corridor of Uncertainty http://www.cricket.mailliw.com/ - Sanity is a madness put to good use -