diff --git a/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/IntegrationNamespaceUtils.java b/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/IntegrationNamespaceUtils.java
index 55db4371f9..8d572aab83 100644
--- a/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/IntegrationNamespaceUtils.java
+++ b/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/IntegrationNamespaceUtils.java
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ import org.w3c.dom.Element;
  * @author Marius Bogoevici
  * @author Alex Peters
  * @author Oleg Zhurakousky
+ * @author Gary Russell
  */
 public abstract class IntegrationNamespaceUtils {
 
@@ -148,9 +149,18 @@ public abstract class IntegrationNamespaceUtils {
 	public static void configurePollerMetadata(Element pollerElement, BeanDefinitionBuilder targetBuilder,
 			ParserContext parserContext) {
 		if (pollerElement.hasAttribute("ref")) {
-			if (pollerElement.getAttributes().getLength() != 1) {
-				parserContext.getReaderContext().error(
-						"A 'poller' element that provides a 'ref' must have no other attributes.", pollerElement);
+			int numberOfAttributes = pollerElement.getAttributes().getLength();
+			if (numberOfAttributes != 1) {
+				/*
+				 * When importing the core namespace, e.g. into jdbc, we get a 'default="false"' attribute,
+				 * even if not explicitly declared.
+				 */
+				if (!(numberOfAttributes == 2 &&
+						pollerElement.hasAttribute("default") &&
+						pollerElement.getAttribute("default").equals("false"))) {
+					parserContext.getReaderContext().error(
+							"A 'poller' element that provides a 'ref' must have no other attributes.", pollerElement);
+				}
 			}
 			if (pollerElement.getChildNodes().getLength() != 0) {
 				parserContext.getReaderContext().error(
diff --git a/spring-integration-jdbc/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/jdbc/config/InnerPollerParserTests-context.xml b/spring-integration-jdbc/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/jdbc/config/InnerPollerParserTests-context.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..aaa25ba9c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-integration-jdbc/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/jdbc/config/InnerPollerParserTests-context.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xmlns:int="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
+	xmlns:int-jdbc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration-2.0.xsd
+		http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc/spring-integration-jdbc-2.0.xsd
+		http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">
+
+	<int:poller id="outer" fixed-rate="5000"/>
+
+	<int:channel id="someChannel"/>
+
+	<int-jdbc:inbound-channel-adapter channel="someChannel" jdbc-operations="ops" 
+			query="select 1">
+		<int:poller ref="outer"/>
+	</int-jdbc:inbound-channel-adapter>
+
+	<bean id="ops" class="org.mockito.Mockito" factory-method="mock">
+		<constructor-arg value="org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcOperations"/>
+	</bean>
+</beans>
diff --git a/spring-integration-jdbc/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/jdbc/config/InnerPollerParserTests.java b/spring-integration-jdbc/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/jdbc/config/InnerPollerParserTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..42639caaea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-integration-jdbc/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/jdbc/config/InnerPollerParserTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2011 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.integration.jdbc.config;
+
+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;
+import org.springframework.context.support.GenericXmlApplicationContext;
+import org.springframework.core.io.ByteArrayResource;
+import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
+
+/**
+ * @author Gary Russell
+ * @since 2.0.5
+ *
+ */
+public class InnerPollerParserTests {
+
+	@Test
+	public void testRefGood() {
+		new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("InnerPollerParserTests-context.xml", InnerPollerParserTests.class);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testRefExtraAttribute() {
+		try {
+			// Load context from a String to avoid IDEs reporting the invalid configuration
+			String badContext =
+				"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>" +
+				"<beans xmlns=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans\"" +
+				"		xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\"" +
+				"		xmlns:int=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration\"" +
+				"		xmlns:int-jdbc=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc\"" +
+				"		xsi:schemaLocation=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration-2.0.xsd" +
+				"			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc/spring-integration-jdbc-2.0.xsd" +
+				"			http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd\">" +
+				"" +
+				"	<int:poller id=\"outer\" fixed-rate=\"5000\"/>" +
+				"" +
+				"	<int:channel id=\"someChannel\"/>" +
+				"" +
+				"	<int-jdbc:inbound-channel-adapter channel=\"someChannel\" jdbc-operations=\"ops\"" + 
+				"			query=\"select 1\">" +
+				"		<int:poller ref=\"outer\" fixed-rate=\"1000\"/>" + // <<<<< fixed-rate not allowed here
+				"	</int-jdbc:inbound-channel-adapter>" +
+				"" +
+				"	<bean id=\"ops\" class=\"org.mockito.Mockito\" factory-method=\"mock\">" +
+				"		<constructor-arg value=\"org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcOperations\"/>" +
+				"	</bean>" +
+				"</beans>";
+
+			Resource resource = new ByteArrayResource(badContext.getBytes());
+			new GenericXmlApplicationContext(resource);
+			fail("Expected Failure to load ApplicationContext");
+		} catch (BeanDefinitionParsingException bdpe) {
+			assertTrue(bdpe.getMessage().startsWith("Configuration problem: A 'poller' element that provides a 'ref' must have no other attributes."));
+		}
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testRefDefaultTrue() {
+		try {
+			// Load context from a String to avoid IDEs reporting the invalid configuration
+			String badContext =
+				"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>" +
+				"<beans xmlns=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans\"" +
+				"		xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\"" +
+				"		xmlns:int=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration\"" +
+				"		xmlns:int-jdbc=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc\"" +
+				"		xsi:schemaLocation=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration-2.0.xsd" +
+				"			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc/spring-integration-jdbc-2.0.xsd" +
+				"			http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd\">" +
+				"" +
+				"	<int:poller id=\"outer\" fixed-rate=\"5000\"/>" +
+				"" +
+				"	<int:channel id=\"someChannel\"/>" +
+				"" +
+				"	<int-jdbc:inbound-channel-adapter channel=\"someChannel\" jdbc-operations=\"ops\"" + 
+				"			query=\"select 1\">" +
+				"		<int:poller ref=\"outer\" default=\"true\"/>" + // <<<<< default true not allowed here
+				"	</int-jdbc:inbound-channel-adapter>" +
+				"" +
+				"	<bean id=\"ops\" class=\"org.mockito.Mockito\" factory-method=\"mock\">" +
+				"		<constructor-arg value=\"org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcOperations\"/>" +
+				"	</bean>" +
+				"</beans>";
+
+			Resource resource = new ByteArrayResource(badContext.getBytes());
+			new GenericXmlApplicationContext(resource);
+			fail("Expected Failure to load ApplicationContext");
+		} catch (BeanDefinitionParsingException bdpe) {
+			assertTrue(bdpe.getMessage().startsWith("Configuration problem: A 'poller' element that provides a 'ref' must have no other attributes."));
+		}
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testRefExtraAttributeAndDefaultFalse() {
+		try {
+			// Load context from a String to avoid IDEs reporting the invalid configuration
+			String badContext =
+				"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>" +
+				"<beans xmlns=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans\"" +
+				"		xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\"" +
+				"		xmlns:int=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration\"" +
+				"		xmlns:int-jdbc=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc\"" +
+				"		xsi:schemaLocation=\"http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration-2.0.xsd" +
+				"			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/jdbc/spring-integration-jdbc-2.0.xsd" +
+				"			http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd\">" +
+				"" +
+				"	<int:poller id=\"outer\" fixed-rate=\"5000\"/>" +
+				"" +
+				"	<int:channel id=\"someChannel\"/>" +
+				"" +
+				"	<int-jdbc:inbound-channel-adapter channel=\"someChannel\" jdbc-operations=\"ops\"" + 
+				"			query=\"select 1\">" +
+				"		<int:poller ref=\"outer\" default=\"false\" fixed-rate=\"1000\"/>" + // <<<<< fixed-rate not allowed here
+				"	</int-jdbc:inbound-channel-adapter>" +
+				"" +
+				"	<bean id=\"ops\" class=\"org.mockito.Mockito\" factory-method=\"mock\">" +
+				"		<constructor-arg value=\"org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcOperations\"/>" +
+				"	</bean>" +
+				"</beans>";
+
+			Resource resource = new ByteArrayResource(badContext.getBytes());
+			new GenericXmlApplicationContext(resource);
+			fail("Expected Failure to load ApplicationContext");
+		} catch (BeanDefinitionParsingException bdpe) {
+			assertTrue(bdpe.getMessage().startsWith("Configuration problem: A 'poller' element that provides a 'ref' must have no other attributes."));
+		}
+	}
+}