diff --git a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriter.java b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriter.java
index 782191cbf..f5b659fe8 100644
--- a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriter.java
+++ b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriter.java
@@ -438,6 +438,7 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriter<T> extends AbstractItemStreamItemWriter<T> impl
 			}
 			delegateEventWriter = createXmlEventWriter(outputFactory, bufferedWriter);
 			eventWriter = new NoStartEndDocumentStreamWriter(delegateEventWriter);
+			initNamespaceContext(delegateEventWriter);
 			if (!restarted) {
 				startDocument(delegateEventWriter);
 			}
@@ -491,6 +492,39 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriter<T> extends AbstractItemStreamItemWriter<T> impl
 	protected Result createStaxResult() throws Exception {
 		return StaxUtils.getResult(eventWriter);
 	}
+	
+	/**
+	 * Inits the namespace context of the XMLEventWriter:
+	 * <ul>
+	 * <li>rootTagNamespacePrefix for rootTagName</li>
+	 * <li>any other xmlns namespace prefix declarations in the root element attributes</li>
+	 * </ul>
+	 * 
+	 * @param writer XML event writer
+	 * @throws XMLStreamException
+	 */
+	protected void initNamespaceContext(XMLEventWriter writer) throws XMLStreamException {
+		if (StringUtils.hasText(getRootTagNamespace())) {
+			if(StringUtils.hasText(getRootTagNamespacePrefix())) {
+				writer.setPrefix(getRootTagNamespacePrefix(), getRootTagNamespace());	
+			} else {
+				writer.setDefaultNamespace(getRootTagNamespace());
+			}
+		}
+		if (!CollectionUtils.isEmpty(getRootElementAttributes())) {
+			for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : getRootElementAttributes().entrySet()) {
+				String key = entry.getKey();
+				if (key.startsWith("xmlns")) {
+					String prefix = "";
+					if (key.contains(":")) {
+						prefix = key.substring(key.indexOf(":") + 1);
+					}
+					System.err.println("registering prefix: " +prefix + "=" + entry.getValue());
+					writer.setPrefix(prefix, entry.getValue());
+				}
+			}
+		}			
+	}
 
 	/**
 	 * Writes simple XML header containing:
diff --git a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriterTests.java b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriterTests.java
index 9e505eed6..4194cdc30 100644
--- a/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriterTests.java
+++ b/spring-batch-infrastructure/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/item/xml/StaxEventItemWriterTests.java
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.List;
 
+import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
 import javax.xml.stream.XMLEventFactory;
 import javax.xml.stream.XMLEventWriter;
 import javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException;
@@ -27,6 +28,7 @@ import org.springframework.core.io.FileSystemResource;
 import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
 import org.springframework.oxm.Marshaller;
 import org.springframework.oxm.XmlMappingException;
+import org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller;
 import org.springframework.transaction.PlatformTransactionManager;
 import org.springframework.transaction.TransactionStatus;
 import org.springframework.transaction.support.TransactionCallback;
@@ -55,8 +57,12 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriterTests {
 			return ClassUtils.getShortName(StaxEventItemWriter.class) + "-testString";
 		}
 	};
+	
+	private JAXBItem jaxbItem = new JAXBItem();
 
 	private List<? extends Object> items = Collections.singletonList(item);
+	
+	private List<? extends Object> jaxbItems = Collections.singletonList(jaxbItem);
 
 	private static final String TEST_STRING = "<" + ClassUtils.getShortName(StaxEventItemWriter.class)
 			+ "-testString/>";
@@ -68,6 +74,8 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriterTests {
 			+ "-testString/>";
 
 	private SimpleMarshaller marshaller;
+	
+	private Jaxb2Marshaller jaxbMarshaller;
 
 	@Before
 	public void setUp() throws Exception {
@@ -76,6 +84,8 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriterTests {
 		resource = new FileSystemResource(File.createTempFile("StaxEventWriterOutputSourceTests", ".xml", directory));
 		writer = createItemWriter();
 		executionContext = new ExecutionContext();
+		jaxbMarshaller = new Jaxb2Marshaller();
+		jaxbMarshaller.setClassesToBeBound(JAXBItem.class);
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -198,7 +208,6 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriterTests {
 			// expected
 		}
 		writer.close();
-		System.err.println(getOutputFileContent());
 		String outputFile = getOutputFileContent();
 		assertEquals("<root></root>", outputFile);
 
@@ -224,7 +233,6 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriterTests {
 		// check the output is concatenation of 'before restart' and 'after
 		// restart' writes.
 		outputFile = getOutputFileContent();
-		System.err.println(getOutputFileContent());
 		assertEquals(1, StringUtils.countOccurrencesOf(outputFile, TEST_STRING));
 		assertTrue(outputFile.contains("<root>" + TEST_STRING + "</root>"));
 		assertEquals("<root><StaxEventItemWriter-testString/></root>", outputFile);
@@ -401,6 +409,89 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriterTests {
 		assertTrue("Wrong content: " + content, content.contains(("</ns:root>")));
 		assertTrue("Wrong content: " + content, content.contains(("<ns:root")));
 	}
+	
+	/**
+	 * Namespace prefixes are properly initialized on restart.
+	 */
+	@Test
+	public void testRootTagWithNamespaceRestart() throws Exception {
+		writer.setMarshaller(jaxbMarshaller);
+		writer.setRootTagName("{http://www.springframework.org/test}root");
+		writer.afterPropertiesSet();
+		writer.open(executionContext);
+		writer.write(jaxbItems);
+		writer.update(executionContext);
+		writer.close();
+		
+		writer = createItemWriter();
+		writer.setMarshaller(jaxbMarshaller);
+		writer.setRootTagName("{http://www.springframework.org/test}root");
+		writer.afterPropertiesSet();
+		writer.open(executionContext);
+		writer.write(jaxbItems);
+		writer.update(executionContext);
+		writer.close();
+		
+		String content = getOutputFileContent();
+		assertEquals("Wrong content: " + content, 
+				"<root xmlns=\"http://www.springframework.org/test\"><item/><item/></root>", content);
+	}
+	
+	/**
+	 * Namespace prefixes are properly initialized on restart.
+	 */
+	@Test
+	public void testRootTagWithNamespaceAndPrefixRestart() throws Exception {
+		writer.setMarshaller(jaxbMarshaller);
+		writer.setRootTagName("{http://www.springframework.org/test}ns:root");
+		writer.afterPropertiesSet();
+		writer.open(executionContext);
+		writer.write(jaxbItems);
+		writer.update(executionContext);
+		writer.close();
+		
+		writer = createItemWriter();
+		writer.setMarshaller(jaxbMarshaller);
+		writer.setRootTagName("{http://www.springframework.org/test}ns:root");
+		writer.afterPropertiesSet();
+		writer.open(executionContext);
+		writer.write(jaxbItems);
+		writer.update(executionContext);
+		writer.close();
+		
+		String content = getOutputFileContent();
+		assertEquals("Wrong content: " + content, 
+				"<ns:root xmlns:ns=\"http://www.springframework.org/test\"><ns:item/><ns:item/></ns:root>", content);
+	}	
+	
+	/**
+	 * Namespace prefixes are properly initialized on restart.
+	 */
+	@Test
+	public void testRootTagWithAdditionalNamespaceRestart() throws Exception {
+		writer.setMarshaller(jaxbMarshaller);
+		writer.setRootTagName("{urn:org.test.foo}foo:root");
+		writer.setRootElementAttributes(Collections.singletonMap("xmlns:ns", "http://www.springframework.org/test"));
+		writer.afterPropertiesSet();
+		writer.open(executionContext);
+		writer.write(jaxbItems);
+		writer.update(executionContext);
+		writer.close();
+		
+		writer = createItemWriter();
+		writer.setMarshaller(jaxbMarshaller);
+		writer.setRootTagName("{urn:org.test.foo}foo:root");
+		writer.setRootElementAttributes(Collections.singletonMap("xmlns:ns", "http://www.springframework.org/test"));
+		writer.afterPropertiesSet();
+		writer.open(executionContext);
+		writer.write(jaxbItems);
+		writer.update(executionContext);
+		writer.close();
+		
+		String content = getOutputFileContent();
+		assertEquals("Wrong content: " + content, 
+				"<foo:root xmlns:foo=\"urn:org.test.foo\" xmlns:ns=\"http://www.springframework.org/test\"><ns:item/><ns:item/></foo:root>", content);
+	}		
 
 	/**
 	 * Writes object's toString representation as XML comment.
@@ -467,5 +558,9 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriterTests {
 
 		return source;
 	}
+	
+	@XmlRootElement(name="item", namespace="http://www.springframework.org/test")
+	private static class JAXBItem {
+	}
 
 }