diff --git a/lib/grape/middleware/base.rb b/lib/grape/middleware/base.rb
index 5ffb55114..508e73528 100644
--- a/lib/grape/middleware/base.rb
+++ b/lib/grape/middleware/base.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 require 'multi_json'
+require 'multi_xml'
 
 module Grape
   module Middleware
@@ -57,7 +58,8 @@ module Formats
           :xml => :encode_xml
         }
         PARSERS = {
-          :json => :decode_json
+          :json => :decode_json,
+          :xml => :decode_xml
         }
 
         def formatters
@@ -122,6 +124,10 @@ def encode_txt(object)
           object.respond_to?(:to_txt) ? object.to_txt : object.to_s
         end
         
+        def decode_xml(object)
+          MultiXml.parse(object)
+        end
+        
         def encode_xml(object)
           object.respond_to?(:to_xml) ? object.to_xml : object.to_s
         end
diff --git a/spec/grape/middleware/formatter_spec.rb b/spec/grape/middleware/formatter_spec.rb
index dafadbcd6..8ddbced8e 100644
--- a/spec/grape/middleware/formatter_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/grape/middleware/formatter_spec.rb
@@ -141,6 +141,10 @@ def to_xml
       subject.env['rack.request.form_hash']['is_boolean'].should be_true
       subject.env['rack.request.form_hash']['string'].should == 'thing'
     end
+    it 'should parse the body from an xml POST/PUT and put the contents into rack.request.from_hash' do
+      subject.call({'PATH_INFO' => '/info.xml', 'Accept' => 'application/xml', 'rack.input' => StringIO.new('<thing><name>Test</name></thing>')})
+      subject.env['rack.request.form_hash']['thing']['name'].should == 'Test'
+    end
     it 'should be able to fail gracefully if the body is regular POST content' do
       subject.call({'PATH_INFO' => '/info', 'Accept' => 'application/json', 'rack.input' => StringIO.new('name=Other+Test+Thing')})
       subject.env['rack.request.form_hash'].should be_nil