diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/server/endpoint/interceptor/PayloadValidatingInterceptorTest.java b/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/server/endpoint/interceptor/PayloadValidatingInterceptorTest.java
index f96106bd..d8fe47a5 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/server/endpoint/interceptor/PayloadValidatingInterceptorTest.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/server/endpoint/interceptor/PayloadValidatingInterceptorTest.java
@@ -325,4 +325,22 @@ public class PayloadValidatingInterceptorTest extends XMLTestCase {
 
     }
 
+    public void testMultipleNamespacesAxiom() throws Exception {
+        AxiomSoapMessageFactory messageFactory = new AxiomSoapMessageFactory();
+        messageFactory.setPayloadCaching(true);
+        messageFactory.afterPropertiesSet();
+
+        PayloadValidatingInterceptor interceptor = new PayloadValidatingInterceptor();
+        interceptor.setSchema(new ClassPathResource("multipleNamespaces.xsd", getClass()));
+        interceptor.afterPropertiesSet();
+
+        Resource resource = new ClassPathResource("multipleNamespaces.xml", getClass());
+        TransportInputStream tis = new MockTransportInputStream(resource.getInputStream());
+        WebServiceMessage message = messageFactory.createWebServiceMessage(tis);
+        MessageContext context = new DefaultMessageContext(message, messageFactory);
+        boolean result = interceptor.handleRequest(context, null);
+        assertTrue("Invalid response from interceptor", result);
+
+    }
+
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/ws/soap/server/endpoint/interceptor/multipleNamespaces.xml b/core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/ws/soap/server/endpoint/interceptor/multipleNamespaces.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..12031f22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/ws/soap/server/endpoint/interceptor/multipleNamespaces.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
+    <soapenv:Body>
+        <r:GetAllRuleSetsRequest xmlns="http://springframework.org/spring-ws"
+                                 xmlns:r="http://springframework.org/spring-ws"/>
+    </soapenv:Body>
+</soapenv:Envelope>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/ws/soap/server/endpoint/interceptor/multipleNamespaces.xsd b/core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/ws/soap/server/endpoint/interceptor/multipleNamespaces.xsd
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b81c1170
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/ws/soap/server/endpoint/interceptor/multipleNamespaces.xsd
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<schema xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
+        targetNamespace="http://springframework.org/spring-ws"
+        xmlns:tns="http://springframework.org/spring-ws" elementFormDefault="qualified">
+
+    <element name="GetAllRuleSetsRequest" />
+
+</schema>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/xml/src/main/java/org/springframework/xml/namespace/SimpleNamespaceContext.java b/xml/src/main/java/org/springframework/xml/namespace/SimpleNamespaceContext.java
index 5d381744..bedee538 100644
--- a/xml/src/main/java/org/springframework/xml/namespace/SimpleNamespaceContext.java
+++ b/xml/src/main/java/org/springframework/xml/namespace/SimpleNamespaceContext.java
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Set;
+import java.util.HashSet;
 import javax.xml.XMLConstants;
 import javax.xml.namespace.NamespaceContext;
 
@@ -42,8 +44,6 @@ public class SimpleNamespaceContext implements NamespaceContext {
     /** Maps a <code>String</code> namespaceUri to a <code>List</code> of prefixes */
     private Map namespaceUriToPrefixes = new HashMap();
 
-    private String defaultNamespaceUri = "";
-
     public String getNamespaceURI(String prefix) {
         Assert.notNull(prefix, "prefix is null");
         if (XMLConstants.XML_NS_PREFIX.equals(prefix)) {
@@ -52,13 +52,10 @@ public class SimpleNamespaceContext implements NamespaceContext {
         else if (XMLConstants.XMLNS_ATTRIBUTE.equals(prefix)) {
             return XMLConstants.XMLNS_ATTRIBUTE_NS_URI;
         }
-        else if (XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX.equals(prefix)) {
-            return defaultNamespaceUri;
-        }
         else if (prefixToNamespaceUri.containsKey(prefix)) {
             return (String) prefixToNamespaceUri.get(prefix);
         }
-        return "";
+        return XMLConstants.NULL_NS_URI;
     }
 
     public String getPrefix(String namespaceUri) {
@@ -100,9 +97,7 @@ public class SimpleNamespaceContext implements NamespaceContext {
     public void bindNamespaceUri(String prefix, String namespaceUri) {
         Assert.notNull(prefix, "No prefix given");
         Assert.notNull(namespaceUri, "No namespaceUri given");
-        if (XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX.equals(prefix)) {
-            defaultNamespaceUri = namespaceUri;
-        } else if (XMLConstants.XML_NS_PREFIX.equals(prefix)) {
+        if (XMLConstants.XML_NS_PREFIX.equals(prefix)) {
             Assert.isTrue(XMLConstants.XML_NS_URI.equals(namespaceUri), "Prefix \"" + prefix +
                     "\" bound to namespace \"" + namespaceUri + "\" (should be \"" + XMLConstants.XML_NS_URI + "\")");
         } else if (XMLConstants.XMLNS_ATTRIBUTE.equals(prefix)) {
@@ -118,7 +113,6 @@ public class SimpleNamespaceContext implements NamespaceContext {
 
     /** Removes all declared prefixes. */
     public void clear() {
-        defaultNamespaceUri = "";
         prefixToNamespaceUri.clear();
         namespaceUriToPrefixes.clear();
     }
@@ -129,14 +123,13 @@ public class SimpleNamespaceContext implements NamespaceContext {
      * @return the declared prefixes
      */
     public Iterator getBoundPrefixes() {
-        return prefixToNamespaceUri.keySet().iterator();
+        Set prefixes = new HashSet(prefixToNamespaceUri.keySet());
+        prefixes.remove(XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX);
+        return prefixes.iterator();
     }
 
     private List getPrefixesInternal(String namespaceUri) {
-        if (defaultNamespaceUri.equals(namespaceUri)) {
-            return Collections.singletonList(XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX);
-        }
-        else if (XMLConstants.XML_NS_URI.equals(namespaceUri)) {
+        if (XMLConstants.XML_NS_URI.equals(namespaceUri)) {
             return Collections.singletonList(XMLConstants.XML_NS_PREFIX);
         }
         else if (XMLConstants.XMLNS_ATTRIBUTE_NS_URI.equals(namespaceUri)) {
@@ -158,22 +151,12 @@ public class SimpleNamespaceContext implements NamespaceContext {
      * @param prefix the prefix to be removed
      */
     public void removeBinding(String prefix) {
-        if (XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX.equals(prefix)) {
-            defaultNamespaceUri = "";
-        }
-        else {
-            String namespaceUri = (String) prefixToNamespaceUri.get(prefix);
-            List prefixes = getPrefixesInternal(namespaceUri);
-            prefixes.remove(prefix);
-        }
+        String namespaceUri = (String) prefixToNamespaceUri.get(prefix);
+        List prefixes = getPrefixesInternal(namespaceUri);
+        prefixes.remove(prefix);
     }
 
     public boolean hasBinding(String prefix) {
-        if (XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX.equals(prefix)) {
-            return !defaultNamespaceUri.equals("");
-        }
-        else {
-            return prefixToNamespaceUri.containsKey(prefix);
-        }
+        return prefixToNamespaceUri.containsKey(prefix);
     }
 }
diff --git a/xml/src/test/java/org/springframework/xml/namespace/SimpleNamespaceContextTest.java b/xml/src/test/java/org/springframework/xml/namespace/SimpleNamespaceContextTest.java
index 09d694a0..c6638e37 100644
--- a/xml/src/test/java/org/springframework/xml/namespace/SimpleNamespaceContextTest.java
+++ b/xml/src/test/java/org/springframework/xml/namespace/SimpleNamespaceContextTest.java
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ public class SimpleNamespaceContextTest extends TestCase {
     }
 
     public void testGetPrefix() {
-        assertEquals("Invalid prefix for default namespace", XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX, context.getPrefix(""));
+        context.bindDefaultNamespaceUri("defaultNamespaceURI");
+        assertEquals("Invalid prefix for default namespace", XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX, context.getPrefix("defaultNamespaceURI"));
         assertEquals("Invalid prefix for bound namespace", "prefix", context.getPrefix("namespaceURI"));
         assertNull("Invalid prefix for unbound namespace", context.getPrefix("unbound"));
         assertEquals("Invalid prefix for namespace", XMLConstants.XML_NS_PREFIX, context
@@ -58,7 +59,8 @@ public class SimpleNamespaceContextTest extends TestCase {
     }
 
     public void testGetPrefixes() {
-        assertPrefixes("", XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX);
+        context.bindDefaultNamespaceUri("defaultNamespaceURI");
+        assertPrefixes("defaultNamespaceURI", XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX);
         assertPrefixes("namespaceURI", "prefix");
         assertFalse("Invalid prefix for unbound namespace", context.getPrefixes("unbound").hasNext());
         assertPrefixes(XMLConstants.XML_NS_URI, XMLConstants.XML_NS_PREFIX);
@@ -137,4 +139,21 @@ public class SimpleNamespaceContextTest extends TestCase {
         context.bindNamespaceUri(prefix, namespaceUri);
         assertTrue("Context has no binding", context.hasBinding(prefix));
     }
+
+    public void testDefaultNamespaceMultiplePrefixes() {
+        String defaultNamespace = "http://springframework.org/spring-ws";
+        context.bindDefaultNamespaceUri(defaultNamespace);
+        context.bindNamespaceUri("prefix", defaultNamespace);
+        assertEquals("Invalid prefix", XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX, context.getPrefix(defaultNamespace));
+        Iterator iterator = context.getPrefixes(defaultNamespace);
+        assertNotNull("getPrefixes returns null", iterator);
+        assertTrue("iterator is empty", iterator.hasNext());
+        String result = (String) iterator.next();
+        assertTrue("Invalid prefix", result.equals(XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX) || result.equals("prefix"));
+        assertTrue("iterator is empty", iterator.hasNext());
+        result = (String) iterator.next();
+        assertTrue("Invalid prefix", result.equals(XMLConstants.DEFAULT_NS_PREFIX) || result.equals("prefix"));
+        assertFalse("iterator contains more than two values", iterator.hasNext());
+    }
+
 }