diff --git a/announcement/plugin.jelly b/announcement/plugin.jelly
index 58911f2e..5e569544 100644
--- a/announcement/plugin.jelly
+++ b/announcement/plugin.jelly
@@ -127,10 +127,11 @@
     
       <j:set var="stylesheetURI" value="file:${maven.announcement.stylesheet.path}"/>
 
-      <echo>Using stylesheet located at ${stylesheetURI}</echo>
-
+      <echo>Using stylesheet located at ${stylesheetURI} and ${maven.announcement.encoding} encoding</echo>
+      
       <j:file
           name="${file}"
+          encoding="${maven.announcement.encoding}"
           outputMode="xml"
           omitXmlDeclaration="true"
           prettyPrint="false">
diff --git a/announcement/plugin.properties b/announcement/plugin.properties
index e1d8aefb..4814bffa 100644
--- a/announcement/plugin.properties
+++ b/announcement/plugin.properties
@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@
 # Stylesheet to use to generate the text announcement
 maven.announcement.stylesheet.path = ${plugin.resources}/announcement.jsl
 
+# Encoding to be used to generate the file
+maven.announcement.encoding = UTF-8
+
 # IP address or name of the SMTP server used to send an announcement email
 # maven.announcement.mail.server = 
 
diff --git a/announcement/xdocs/changes.xml b/announcement/xdocs/changes.xml
index 16d20ef8..5a8ee740 100644
--- a/announcement/xdocs/changes.xml
+++ b/announcement/xdocs/changes.xml
@@ -25,6 +25,11 @@
   </properties>
   <body>
     <release version="1.3-SNAPSHOT" date="in CVS">
+      <action dev="vmassol" type="add" issue="MPANNOUNCEMENT-13" due-to="Felipe Leme">
+        Added new optional <code>maven.announcement.encoding</code> property 
+        that defines which charset encoding to use to generate the text announcement
+        (defaults to UTF-8).
+      </action>
       <action dev="vmassol" type="add" issue="MPANNOUNCEMENT-9" due-to="Felipe Leme">
         Added new <code>announcement:mail</code> goal to automatically
         send the generated announcement by email.
diff --git a/announcement/xdocs/properties.xml b/announcement/xdocs/properties.xml
index 9edce1cf..220a08a3 100644
--- a/announcement/xdocs/properties.xml
+++ b/announcement/xdocs/properties.xml
@@ -119,6 +119,16 @@
           <td>none
           </td>
         </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td>maven.announcement.encoding</td>
+          <td>Yes</td>
+          <td>
+            Encoding used to generate the announcement file.
+          </td>
+          <td>
+            <code>UTF-8</code>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
       </table>
     </section>
   </body>