XMLDocument wont accept space at the start of an XML Document.

Hi all,

I have the following xml document

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

(space here)

< xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" >

<wfmcase>
<case_details>
<caseid>case id</caseid>
<archive_status/>
</case_details>
<error_status>
<error>error</error>
<error_type>type</error_type>
<error_message>message</error_message>
</error_status>
</wfmcase>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If i leave a space before the first line in the xml document i get an error with the below code. If i remove the empty line at the start it runs fine.

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();

xmlDoc.PreserveWhitespace = false;

xmlDoc.Load("dsp_does_not_exist.xml");

The error i get is :

Unexpected XML declaration. The XML declaration must be the first node in the document, and no white space characters are allowed to appear before it. Line 2, position 3.

Is there a work around this Or is this a bug