Index: wp-includes/class-IXR.php
===================================================================
--- wp-includes/class-IXR.php	(revision 10783)
+++ wp-includes/class-IXR.php	(working copy)
@@ -169,6 +169,15 @@
         xml_set_object($this->_parser, $this);
         xml_set_element_handler($this->_parser, 'tag_open', 'tag_close');
         xml_set_character_data_handler($this->_parser, 'cdata');
+
+		// libxml2 2.7.0 -2.7.2 stripping leading angle brackets bug patch
+		// See http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/7771
+		if ( LIBXML_DOTTED_VERSION == '2.7.0' || LIBXML_DOTTED_VERSION == '2.7.1' || LIBXML_DOTTED_VERSION == '2.7.2' ) {
+			$this->message = str_replace( '<', '<', $this->message );
+			$this->message = str_replace( '>', '>', $this->message );
+			$this->message = str_replace( '&', '&', $this->message );
+		}
+
         if (!xml_parse($this->_parser, $this->message)) {
             /* die(sprintf('XML error: %s at line %d',
                 xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($this->_parser)),