diff --git a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Mapping/Driver/XmlDriver.php b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Mapping/Driver/XmlDriver.php
index c917eb245..37b0f9522 100644
--- a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Mapping/Driver/XmlDriver.php
+++ b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Mapping/Driver/XmlDriver.php
@@ -811,7 +811,7 @@ class XmlDriver extends FileDriver
     protected function loadMappingFile($file)
     {
         $result = array();
-        $xmlElement = simplexml_load_file($file);
+        $xmlElement = simplexml_load_string(file_get_contents($file));
 
         if (isset($xmlElement->entity)) {
             foreach ($xmlElement->entity as $entityElement) {