diff --git a/src/osgDB/XmlParser.cpp b/src/osgDB/XmlParser.cpp
index 98cf72dfa..ffde756bb 100644
--- a/src/osgDB/XmlParser.cpp
+++ b/src/osgDB/XmlParser.cpp
@@ -49,10 +49,12 @@ std::string osgDB::trimEnclosingSpaces(const std::string& str)
 {
     if (str.empty()) return str;
 
-    std::string::size_type start = str.find_first_not_of(' ');
+    const std::string whitespaces(" \t\f\v\n\r");
+
+    std::string::size_type start = str.find_first_not_of(whitespaces);
     if (start==std::string::npos) return std::string();
 
-    std::string::size_type end = str.find_last_not_of(' ');
+    std::string::size_type end = str.find_last_not_of(whitespaces);
     if (end==std::string::npos) return std::string();
 
     return std::string(str, start, (end-start)+1);