diff --git a/html2xdoc/src/main/org/apache/maven/html2xdoc/Html2XdocBean.java b/html2xdoc/src/main/org/apache/maven/html2xdoc/Html2XdocBean.java
index f80fd19a..4911022f 100644
--- a/html2xdoc/src/main/org/apache/maven/html2xdoc/Html2XdocBean.java
+++ b/html2xdoc/src/main/org/apache/maven/html2xdoc/Html2XdocBean.java
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ import org.dom4j.Node;
  * A simple bean for converting a HTML document into an XDoc compliant XML
  * document.
  * This could be done via XSLT but is a little more complex than it might first
- * appear so its done via Java code instead.  
- * 
+ * appear so its done via Java code instead.
+ *
  * @author <a href="mailto:jstrachan@apache.org">James Strachan</a>
  */
 public class Html2XdocBean {
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
     /**
      * Converts the given HTML document into the corresponding XDoc format
      * of XML
-     * 
+     *
      * @param html the input html document
      * @return Document
      */
@@ -100,9 +100,9 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
 
     /**
      * Iterates thorugh the given body looking for h1, h2, h3 nodes and
-     * creating the associated section elements. Any text nodes 
+     * creating the associated section elements. Any text nodes
      * contained inside the body are wrapped in a &lt;p&gt; element
-     * 
+     *
      * @param output the output destination
      * @param body the block of HTML markup to convert
      */
@@ -140,10 +140,10 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
     /**
      * Specifies whether the node is a text modifying construct that should be
      * passed as is to the resultant html. Such as an anchor '&lt;a&gt;'.
-     * 
+     *
      * @param node the node to check
      * @return true if the node is used to modify the formatting of the
-     *         text; otherwise, false 
+     *         text; otherwise, false
      */
     protected boolean isTextFormatting(Node node) {
         // Ultimately this needs bold, italic, and so on
@@ -151,9 +151,9 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
     }
 
     /**
-     * Specifies whether the node is character data and should be passed as 
+     * Specifies whether the node is character data and should be passed as
      * straight text to the resultant html.
-     * 
+     *
      * @param node the node to check
      * @return true if the node is a text node; otherwise, false.
      */
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
 
     /**
      * Specifies whether the node is a heading node.
-     * 
+     *
      * @param node the node to check
      * @return true if the given node is a heading element
      *         (h1, h2, h3 etc); otherwise, false
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
 
     /**
      * Determines the heading level of the node.
-     * 
+     *
      * @param node the node to check
      * @return the integer level of the heading
      */
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
     /**
      * Creates a section or subsection as necessary based on the node
      * for the output document.
-     * 
+     *
      * @param output the output document to attach the section
      * @param node the node to base making a section on
      */
@@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
      * Determines if a new section is needed which is based on whether
      * the node's a heading level and equal to or less than the current
      * section's heading level.
-     *  
+     *
      * @param node the node to check
      * @return true if the current node's information means for a new
      *         section; otherwise, false
@@ -314,7 +314,7 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
      * @return List
      */
     protected List getBodyContent(List content) {
-        // lets turn <pre> into <source> and concatenate consective entries 
+        // lets turn <pre> into <source> and concatenate consective entries
         Element lastPre = null;
         LinkedList list = new LinkedList();
         boolean lastWasElement = true;
@@ -342,6 +342,8 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
             }
         }
 
+        if (list.size() == 0) return list;
+
         // now lets remove any whitespace text nodes at the beginning and end
         while (true) {
             Node node = (Node) list.getFirst();
@@ -376,7 +378,7 @@ public class Html2XdocBean {
 
     /**
      * @param node the node to check
-     * @return true if the given node is a whitespace text node 
+     * @return true if the given node is a whitespace text node
      */
     protected boolean isWhitespace(Node node) {
         if (node instanceof CharacterData) {
diff --git a/html2xdoc/xdocs/changes.xml b/html2xdoc/xdocs/changes.xml
index 9adac491..6b849cc8 100644
--- a/html2xdoc/xdocs/changes.xml
+++ b/html2xdoc/xdocs/changes.xml
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
   </properties>
   <body>
     <release version="1.3.1-SNAPSHOT" date="in CVS">
+      <action dev="dion" type="fix">Fix crash with an empty html body element.</action>
     </release>
     <release version="1.3" date="2004-05-15">
       <action dev="dion" type="fix">Fix issues with DOM classes and jdk1.3</action>