diff --git a/include/XSLT/impl/handler/xslt_output_handler.hpp b/include/XSLT/impl/handler/xslt_output_handler.hpp
index a8d6300d..d300a3c1 100644
--- a/include/XSLT/impl/handler/xslt_output_handler.hpp
+++ b/include/XSLT/impl/handler/xslt_output_handler.hpp
@@ -53,7 +53,9 @@ public:
 
   virtual void characters(const std::string& ch)
   {
-    throw SAX::SAXException("xsl:output must be empty");
+    for(std::string::const_iterator i = ch.begin(), e = ch.end(); i != e; ++i)
+      if(!Arabica::XML::is_space(*i))
+        throw SAX::SAXException("xsl:value-of element must be empty");
   } // characters
  
 private: