diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 602416e8..7c2b5bce 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -12,3 +12,4 @@ sleekxmpp.egg-info/
 *~
 .baboon/
 .DS_STORE
+*.iml
diff --git a/sleekxmpp/xmlstream/tostring.py b/sleekxmpp/xmlstream/tostring.py
index c49abd3e..4d7976b1 100644
--- a/sleekxmpp/xmlstream/tostring.py
+++ b/sleekxmpp/xmlstream/tostring.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 import sys
+from xml.etree.ElementTree import _escape_cdata, _escape_attrib
 
 if sys.version_info < (3, 0):
     import types
@@ -140,33 +141,12 @@ def tostring(xml=None, xmlns='', stream=None, outbuffer='',
 
 
 def escape(text, use_cdata=False):
-    """Convert special characters in XML to escape sequences.
+    encoding = 'utf-8'
 
-    :param string text: The XML text to convert.
-    :rtype: Unicode string
-    """
-    if sys.version_info < (3, 0):
-        if type(text) != types.UnicodeType:
-            text = unicode(text, 'utf-8', 'ignore')
+    if use_cdata:
+        return _escape_cdata(text, encoding)
 
-    escapes = {'&': '&amp;',
-               '<': '&lt;',
-               '>': '&gt;',
-               "'": '&apos;',
-               '"': '&quot;'}
-
-    if not use_cdata:
-        text = list(text)
-        for i, c in enumerate(text):
-            text[i] = escapes.get(c, c)
-        return ''.join(text)
-    else:
-        escape_needed = False
-        for c in text:
-            if c in escapes:
-                escape_needed = True
-                break
-        if escape_needed:
-            escaped = map(lambda x : "<![CDATA[%s]]>" % x, text.split("]]>"))
-            return "<![CDATA[]]]><![CDATA[]>]]>".join(escaped)
-        return text
+    text = _escape_attrib(text, encoding)
+    if "'" in text:
+        text = text.replace("'", "&apos;")
+    return text
diff --git a/tests/test_tostring.py b/tests/test_tostring.py
index e6148533..be11ab03 100644
--- a/tests/test_tostring.py
+++ b/tests/test_tostring.py
@@ -34,8 +34,7 @@ class TestToString(SleekTest):
         desired = """&lt;foo bar=&quot;baz&quot;&gt;&apos;Hi"""
         desired += """ &amp; welcome!&apos;&lt;/foo&gt;"""
 
-        self.failUnless(escaped == desired,
-            "XML escaping did not work: %s." % escaped)
+        self.assertEqual(escaped, desired)
 
     def testEmptyElement(self):
         """Test converting an empty element to a string."""