diff --git a/xdoc/plugin.jelly b/xdoc/plugin.jelly
index 0516d1b2..801ad1ac 100644
--- a/xdoc/plugin.jelly
+++ b/xdoc/plugin.jelly
@@ -152,6 +152,11 @@
         />
       </j:if>
       
+      <j:if test="${omitXmlDeclaration == null}">
+        <j:set var="omitXmlDeclaration" 
+          value="${pom.getPluginContext('maven-xdoc-plugin').getVariable('maven.docs.omitXmlDeclaration')}"/>
+      </j:if>
+      
       <mkdir dir="${outputDirectory}"/>
 
       <doc:jslFile
diff --git a/xdoc/plugin.properties b/xdoc/plugin.properties
index c0ddf61f..b78f2cd1 100644
--- a/xdoc/plugin.properties
+++ b/xdoc/plugin.properties
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 maven.docs.src = ${basedir}/xdocs
 maven.docs.dest = ${maven.build.dir}/docs
 maven.docs.outputencoding = ISO-8859-1
+maven.docs.omitXmlDeclaration=false
 maven.gen.docs = ${maven.build.dir}/generated-xdocs
 
 maven.xdoc.developmentProcessUrl=http://maven.apache.org/development-process.html