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 1ff2040f2..80a89a3f0 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
@@ -316,7 +316,13 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriter extends ExecutionContextUserSupport implements
 
 		// writer.writeEndDocument(); <- this doesn't work after restart
 		// we need to write end tag of the root element manually
+		
+		//harmless event to close the root tag if there were no items
+		XMLEventFactory factory = XMLEventFactory.newInstance();
+		writer.add(factory.createCharacters(""));
+		
 		writer.flush();
+		
 		ByteBuffer bbuf = ByteBuffer.wrap(("</" + getRootTagName() + ">").getBytes());
 		try {
 			channel.write(bbuf);
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 214332c52..f4d9c104c 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
@@ -163,6 +163,7 @@ public class StaxEventItemWriterTests extends TestCase {
 		assertTrue(outputFileContent().indexOf("<testroot attribute=\"value\"") != NOT_FOUND);
 
 		writer.close(null);
+		assertTrue(outputFileContent().indexOf("<testroot attribute=\"value\">") != NOT_FOUND);
 		assertTrue(outputFileContent().endsWith("</testroot>"));
 	}