diff --git a/lib/ace/mode/xquery_highlight_rules.js b/lib/ace/mode/xquery_highlight_rules.js
index 79a99685..31d49b85 100644
--- a/lib/ace/mode/xquery_highlight_rules.js
+++ b/lib/ace/mode/xquery_highlight_rules.js
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ var XQueryHighlightRules = function() {
         }, {
             token: "comment",
             regex: "<\\!--",
-            next: "comment"
+            next: "xmlcomment"
         }, {
             token: "comment.doc",
             regex: "\\(:~",
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ var XQueryHighlightRules = function() {
         "comment.doc": [
           {
             token: "comment.doc",
-            regex: ".*:\\)",
+            regex: ":\\)",
             next:  "start"
           }, {
             token: "comment.doc.tag",
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ var XQueryHighlightRules = function() {
               regex : "TODO"
           }, {
               token : "comment.doc",
-              regex : "[^@:]+"
+              regex : "[^@:^\\s]+"
           }, {
               token : "comment.doc",
               regex : "."
@@ -176,11 +176,16 @@ var XQueryHighlightRules = function() {
 
         comment: [{
             token: "comment",
-            regex: ".*?-->",
+            regex: ".*:\\)",
             next: "start"
         }, {
             token: "comment",
-            regex: ".*:\\)",
+            regex: ".+"
+        }],
+        
+        xmlcomment: [{
+            token: "comment",
+            regex: ".*?-->",
             next: "start"
         }, {
             token: "comment",