diff --git a/grails-plugin-codecs/src/main/groovy/org/codehaus/groovy/grails/plugins/codecs/XMLEncoder.java b/grails-plugin-codecs/src/main/groovy/org/codehaus/groovy/grails/plugins/codecs/XMLEncoder.java
index 982116afee1..9470b9c3b08 100644
--- a/grails-plugin-codecs/src/main/groovy/org/codehaus/groovy/grails/plugins/codecs/XMLEncoder.java
+++ b/grails-plugin-codecs/src/main/groovy/org/codehaus/groovy/grails/plugins/codecs/XMLEncoder.java
@@ -6,15 +6,18 @@
 
 public class XMLEncoder extends AbstractCharReplacementEncoder {
     static final String XML_CODEC_NAME="EscapedXML";
-    private static final String ESCAPED_BACKTICK = "&#" + ((int) '`')  + ";";
-    private static final String ESCAPED_AT = "&#" + ((int) '@')  + ";";
-    private static final String ESCAPED_EQUAL = "&#" + ((int) '=')  + ";";
-    private static final String ESCAPED_PLUS = "&#" + ((int) '+')  + ";";
-    private static final String ESCAPED_APOS = "&#" + ((int) '\'')  + ";";
+    private static final String ESCAPED_APOS = "&#" + ((int) '\'')  + ";"; // html doesn't have apos, so use numeric entity
     private static final String ESCAPED_QUOTE = """;
     private static final String ESCAPED_GT = ">";
     private static final String ESCAPED_LT = "<";
     private static final String ESCAPED_AMP = "&";
+    // some extras
+    private static final String ESCAPED_BACKSLASH = "&#" + ((int) '\\')  + ";";
+    private static final char NBSP=(char)160;
+    private static final String ESCAPED_NON_BREAKING_SPACE = "&#" + ((int) NBSP)  + ";";
+    private static final String ESCAPED_BACKTICK = "&#" + ((int) '`')  + ";";
+    private static final String ESCAPED_AT = "&#" + ((int) '@')  + ";"; // IE Javascript conditional compilation rules
+    
     private static final Set<String> equivalentCodecNames = new HashSet<String>(Arrays.asList(new String[]{"HTML4",HTMLCodec.CODEC_NAME}));
 
     @Override
@@ -28,10 +31,10 @@ protected String escapeCharacter(char ch) {
           case '>': return ESCAPED_GT;          
           case '"': return ESCAPED_QUOTE;
           case '\'': return  ESCAPED_APOS;
-          case '+': return ESCAPED_PLUS;
-          case '=': return ESCAPED_EQUAL;
-          case '@': return ESCAPED_AT;
+          case '\\': return  ESCAPED_BACKSLASH;
+          case '@': return ESCAPED_AT; 
           case '`': return ESCAPED_BACKTICK;
+          case NBSP: return ESCAPED_NON_BREAKING_SPACE;
       }
       return null;
     }
diff --git a/grails-test-suite-web/src/test/groovy/org/codehaus/groovy/grails/web/taglib/ValidationTagLibTests.groovy b/grails-test-suite-web/src/test/groovy/org/codehaus/groovy/grails/web/taglib/ValidationTagLibTests.groovy
index c8b0b3434fd..e73fc680f56 100644
--- a/grails-test-suite-web/src/test/groovy/org/codehaus/groovy/grails/web/taglib/ValidationTagLibTests.groovy
+++ b/grails-test-suite-web/src/test/groovy/org/codehaus/groovy/grails/web/taglib/ValidationTagLibTests.groovy
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ enum Title implements org.springframework.context.MessageSourceResolvable {
         // And then with French.
         webRequest.currentRequest.addPreferredLocale(Locale.FRENCH)
 
-        assertOutputEquals '<input type="text" name="usPrice" value="1&nbsp;045,99" id="usPrice" />',
+        assertOutputEquals '<input type="text" name="usPrice" value="1&#160;045,99" id="usPrice" />',
                 template, [book:b]
     }