diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParser.java b/spring-batch-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParser.java
index a0b308522..76b8ff86a 100644
--- a/spring-batch-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParser.java
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParser.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2006-2008 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2006-2009 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -418,21 +418,8 @@ public class StepParser {
 				String id = listenerElement.getAttribute("id");
 				String listenerRef = listenerElement.getAttribute("ref");
 				String className = listenerElement.getAttribute("class");
-				if ((StringUtils.hasText(id) || StringUtils.hasText(className)) 
-						&& StringUtils.hasText(listenerRef)) {
-					NamedNodeMap attributeNodes = listenerElement.getAttributes();
-					StringBuilder attributes = new StringBuilder();
-					for (int i = 0; i < attributeNodes.getLength(); i++) {
-						if (i > 0) {
-							attributes.append(" ");
-						}
-						attributes.append(attributeNodes.item(i));
-					}
-					parserContext.getReaderContext().error("Both 'ref' and " +
-							(StringUtils.hasText(id) ? "'id'" : "'class'") +
-							" specified; use 'class' with an optional 'id' or just 'ref' for <" + 
-							listenerElement.getTagName() + "> element specified with attributes: " + attributes, element);
-				}
+				checkListenerElementAttributes(parserContext, element,
+						listenerElement, id, listenerRef, className);
 				if (StringUtils.hasText(listenerRef)) {
 			        BeanReference bean = new RuntimeBeanReference(listenerRef);
 					beans.add(bean);
@@ -465,21 +452,8 @@ public class StepParser {
 				String id = listenerElement.getAttribute("id");
 				String listenerRef = listenerElement.getAttribute("ref");
 				String className = listenerElement.getAttribute("class");
-				if ((StringUtils.hasText(id) || StringUtils.hasText(className)) 
-						&& StringUtils.hasText(listenerRef)) {
-					NamedNodeMap attributeNodes = listenerElement.getAttributes();
-					StringBuilder attributes = new StringBuilder();
-					for (int i = 0; i < attributeNodes.getLength(); i++) {
-						if (i > 0) {
-							attributes.append(" ");
-						}
-						attributes.append(attributeNodes.item(i));
-					}
-					parserContext.getReaderContext().error("Both 'ref' and " +
-							(StringUtils.hasText(id) ? "'id'" : "'class'") +
-							" specified; use 'class' with an optional 'id' or just 'ref' for <" + 
-							listenerElement.getTagName() + "> element specified with attributes: " + attributes, element);
-				}
+				checkListenerElementAttributes(parserContext, element,
+						listenerElement, id, listenerRef, className);
 				if (StringUtils.hasText(listenerRef)) {
 			        listenerBuilder.addPropertyReference("delegate", listenerRef);
 				}
@@ -531,6 +505,26 @@ public class StepParser {
 		}
 	}
 
+	private void checkListenerElementAttributes(ParserContext parserContext,
+			Element element, Element listenerElement, String id,
+			String listenerRef, String className) {
+		if ((StringUtils.hasText(id) || StringUtils.hasText(className)) 
+				&& StringUtils.hasText(listenerRef)) {
+			NamedNodeMap attributeNodes = listenerElement.getAttributes();
+			StringBuilder attributes = new StringBuilder();
+			for (int i = 0; i < attributeNodes.getLength(); i++) {
+				if (i > 0) {
+					attributes.append(" ");
+				}
+				attributes.append(attributeNodes.item(i));
+			}
+			parserContext.getReaderContext().error("Both 'ref' and " +
+					(StringUtils.hasText(id) ? "'id'" : "'class'") +
+					" specified; use 'class' with an optional 'id' or just 'ref' for <" + 
+					listenerElement.getTagName() + "> element specified with attributes: " + attributes, element);
+		}
+	}
+
 	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
 	private void handleStreamsElement(Element element, RootBeanDefinition bd, ParserContext parserContext) {
 		Element streamsElement = 
diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/RepositoryJobParserTests.java b/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/RepositoryJobParserTests.java
index 0b36af31e..2542b4e63 100644
--- a/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/RepositoryJobParserTests.java
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/RepositoryJobParserTests.java
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ public class RepositoryJobParserTests {
 	}
 
 	@Test
-	public void testJobWithRepository() throws Exception {
+	public void testTaskletStepWithBadListener() throws Exception {
 		assertNotNull(job);
 		JobExecution jobExecution = jobRepository.createJobExecution(job.getName(), new JobParameters());
 		job.execute(jobExecution);
diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserTests.java b/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..59a9ddab2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2006-2009 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.BeanDefinitionParsingException;
+import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
+
+
+/**
+ * @author Thomas Risberg
+ */
+public class StepParserTests {
+	
+	@Test
+	public void testTaskletStepWithBadStepListener() throws Exception {
+		loadContextWithBadListener("org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserBadStepListenerTests-context.xml");
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testTaskletStepWithBadRetryListener() throws Exception {
+		loadContextWithBadListener("org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserBadRetryListenerTests-context.xml");
+	}
+
+	private void loadContextWithBadListener(String contextLocation) {
+		try {
+			new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(contextLocation);
+			fail("Context should not load!");
+		}
+		catch (BeanDefinitionParsingException e) {
+			assertTrue(e.getMessage().contains("'ref' and 'class'"));
+		}
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserBadRetryListenerTests-context.xml b/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserBadRetryListenerTests-context.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f8972126c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserBadRetryListenerTests-context.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch" xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch/spring-batch-2.0.xsd
+	http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd">
+
+	<beans:import resource="common-context.xml" />
+	
+	<job id="job">
+		<step name="step">
+			<tasklet reader="reader" processor="processor" writer="writer"
+					commit-interval="10" skip-limit="20" 
+					retry-limit="3" cache-capacity="100"
+					transaction-attribute="PROPAGATION_REQUIRED,ISOLATION_DEFAULT,timeout_10,-org.springframework.dao.DataIntegrityViolationException" 
+					is-reader-transactional-queue="true"
+					task-executor="taskExecutor">
+				<retry-listeners>
+					<listener class="org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml.TestRetryListener" ref="retryListener"/>
+				</retry-listeners>
+				<streams>
+					<stream ref="reader"/>
+				</streams>
+				<skippable-exception-classes>
+					org.springframework.dao.DataIntegrityViolationException,
+				</skippable-exception-classes>
+			</tasklet>
+			<listeners>
+				<listener ref="listener"/>
+			</listeners>
+		</step>
+	</job>
+
+	<beans:bean id="reader" class="org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml.TestReader"/>
+	
+	<beans:bean id="processor" class="org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml.TestProcessor"/>
+	
+	<beans:bean id="writer" class="org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml.TestWriter"/>
+
+	<beans:bean id="listener" class="org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml.TestListener"/>
+
+	<beans:bean id="retryListener" class="org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml.TestRetryListener"/>
+	
+	<beans:bean id="taskExecutor" class="org.springframework.scheduling.concurrent.ConcurrentTaskExecutor"/>
+
+</beans:beans>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserBadStepListenerTests-context.xml b/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserBadStepListenerTests-context.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cae1ad809
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserBadStepListenerTests-context.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch" xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch/spring-batch-2.0.xsd
+	http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd">
+
+	<beans:import resource="common-context.xml" />
+	
+	<job id="job">
+		<step name="ft-step" tasklet="tasklet">
+			<listeners>
+				<listener ref="listener" class="org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml.TestListener"/>
+			</listeners>
+		</step>
+	</job>
+
+	<beans:bean id="tasklet" class="org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml.TestTasklet"/>
+
+	<beans:bean id="listener" class="org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml.TestListener"/>
+	
+</beans:beans>
\ No newline at end of file