diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 3d041b4bbe3..a5925c6805e 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ PHP                                                                        NEWS
 - Added litespeed SAPI module. (George Wang)
 - Added ext/hash support to ext/session's ID generator. (Sara)
 
+- Implemented feature request #34381 (nl2br() should have an option for 
+  XHTML/HTML compatible BR element) (Kalle)
+
 - Fixed a bug causing miscalculations with the "last <weekday> of <n> month"
   relative time string. (Derick)
 
diff --git a/ext/standard/basic_functions.c b/ext/standard/basic_functions.c
index b5c078a24bf..310b5c32465 100644
--- a/ext/standard/basic_functions.c
+++ b/ext/standard/basic_functions.c
@@ -2739,6 +2739,7 @@ ZEND_END_ARG_INFO()
 static
 ZEND_BEGIN_ARG_INFO(arginfo_nl2br, 0)
 	ZEND_ARG_INFO(0, str)
+	ZEND_ARG_INFO(0, is_xhtml)
 ZEND_END_ARG_INFO()
 
 static
diff --git a/ext/standard/string.c b/ext/standard/string.c
index 5db9e854955..5bb1a81b6f0 100644
--- a/ext/standard/string.c
+++ b/ext/standard/string.c
@@ -3887,18 +3887,19 @@ PHP_FUNCTION(hebrevc)
 }
 /* }}} */
 
-/* {{{ proto string nl2br(string str)
+/* {{{ proto string nl2br(string str [, bool is_xhtml])
    Converts newlines to HTML line breaks */
 PHP_FUNCTION(nl2br)
 {
-	/* in brief this inserts <br /> before matched regexp \n\r?|\r\n? */
-	char	*tmp, *str;
-	int	new_length;
-	char	*end, *target;
-	int	repl_cnt = 0;
-	int	str_len;
+	/* in brief this inserts <br /> or <br> before matched regexp \n\r?|\r\n? */
+	char		*tmp, *str;
+	int		new_length;
+	char		*end, *target;
+	int		repl_cnt = 0;
+	int		str_len;
+	zend_bool	is_xhtml = 1;
 	
-	if (zend_parse_parameters(ZEND_NUM_ARGS() TSRMLS_CC, "s", &str, &str_len) == FAILURE) {
+	if (zend_parse_parameters(ZEND_NUM_ARGS() TSRMLS_CC, "s|b", &str, &str_len, &is_xhtml) == FAILURE) {
 		return;
 	}
 	
@@ -3927,7 +3928,12 @@ PHP_FUNCTION(nl2br)
 		RETURN_STRINGL(str, str_len, 1);
 	}
 
-	new_length = str_len + repl_cnt * (sizeof("<br />") - 1);
+	if (is_xhtml) {
+		new_length = str_len + repl_cnt * (sizeof("<br />") - 1);
+	} else {
+		new_length = str_len + repl_cnt * (sizeof("<br>") - 1);
+	}
+
 	tmp = target = emalloc(new_length + 1);
 
 	while (str < end) {
@@ -3937,8 +3943,12 @@ PHP_FUNCTION(nl2br)
 				*target++ = '<';
 				*target++ = 'b';
 				*target++ = 'r';
-				*target++ = ' ';
-				*target++ = '/';
+
+				if (is_xhtml) {
+					*target++ = ' ';
+					*target++ = '/';
+				}
+
 				*target++ = '>';
 				
 				if ((*str == '\r' && *(str+1) == '\n') || (*str == '\n' && *(str+1) == '\r')) {