diff --git a/ext/xml/xml.c b/ext/xml/xml.c
index 3fc28f86793..376711503b1 100644
--- a/ext/xml/xml.c
+++ b/ext/xml/xml.c
@@ -511,7 +511,7 @@ static XML_Char *xml_utf8_encode(const char *s, int len, int *newlen, const XML_
 {
 	int pos = len;
 	char *newbuf;
-	unsigned short c;
+	unsigned int c;
 	unsigned short (*encoder)(unsigned char) = NULL;
 	xml_encoding *enc = xml_get_encoding(encoding);