diff --git a/lisp/nxml/nxml-mode.el b/lisp/nxml/nxml-mode.el
index 7acc19b9058..1d2471cc1fa 100644
--- a/lisp/nxml/nxml-mode.el
+++ b/lisp/nxml/nxml-mode.el
@@ -1522,6 +1522,8 @@ of the line.  This expects the xmltok-* variables to be set up as by
 	((progn
 	   (goto-char pos)
 	   (forward-line -1)
+           (while (looking-at "^[[:blank:]]*$")
+             (forward-line -1))
 	   (<= (point) xmltok-start))
 	 (goto-char (+ xmltok-start (length open-delim)))
 	 (when (and (string= open-delim "<!--")