I tired using < in the setDataURL and it works fine. That is why I find it odd. May there is some processing in the JS script when it retrieves the xml content from a URL.
Also I tried the %16lt; in setDataXML, the result is the "%16" portion gets converted to appropriate character but the remaining string "lt;" is still there. I tried %3C but in setDataXML the result is invalid XML error.
The version is the developer product.
Regards,
Khy