I would really like to do the following: from lxml import etree as ET from lxml.builder import E url = "http://something?x=10&y=20" l = E.link(url) ET.tostring(l) -> "<link>http://something?x=10&y=20</link>" However the lxml tostring always quotes the &, I can't find a way to tell it to avoid quoting it. Is it possible? Thanks