diff --git a/openerp/osv/orm.py b/openerp/osv/orm.py
index 6258846e825..ed27033ccd4 100644
--- a/openerp/osv/orm.py
+++ b/openerp/osv/orm.py
@@ -1729,6 +1729,9 @@ class BaseModel(object):
         fields = {}
         children = True
 
+        if isinstance(node, SKIPPED_ELEMENT_TYPES):
+            return fields
+
         modifiers = {}
 
         def encode(s):
diff --git a/openerp/tools/misc.py b/openerp/tools/misc.py
index 9812bffdfee..0289e4c9d09 100644
--- a/openerp/tools/misc.py
+++ b/openerp/tools/misc.py
@@ -59,7 +59,10 @@ _logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 # List of etree._Element subclasses that we choose to ignore when parsing XML.
 # We include the *Base ones just in case, currently they seem to be subclasses of the _* ones.
-SKIPPED_ELEMENT_TYPES = (etree._Comment, etree._ProcessingInstruction, etree.CommentBase, etree.PIBase)
+SKIPPED_ELEMENT_TYPES = (etree._Comment, etree._ProcessingInstruction, etree.CommentBase, etree.PIBase, etree._Entity)
+
+# Configure default global parser
+etree.set_default_parser(etree.XMLParser(resolve_entities=False))
 
 def find_in_path(name):
     try: