diff --git a/lib/ace/mode/xml_highlight_rules.js b/lib/ace/mode/xml_highlight_rules.js
index 54c7db9f..ca9e88a3 100644
--- a/lib/ace/mode/xml_highlight_rules.js
+++ b/lib/ace/mode/xml_highlight_rules.js
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ var XmlHighlightRules = function(normalize) {
     this.embedTagRules = function(HighlightRules, prefix, tag){
         this.$rules.tag.unshift({
             token : ["meta.tag.punctuation.tag-open.xml", "meta.tag." + tag + ".tag-name.xml"],
-            regex : "(<)(" + tag + ")",
+            regex : "(<)(" + tag + "(?=\\s|>|$))",
             next: [
                 {include : "attributes"},
                 {token : "meta.tag.punctuation.tag-close.xml", regex : "/?>", next : prefix + "start"}
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ var XmlHighlightRules = function(normalize) {
 
         this.embedRules(HighlightRules, prefix, [{
             token: ["meta.tag.punctuation.end-tag-open.xml", "meta.tag." + tag + ".tag-name.xml"],
-            regex : "(</)(" + tag + ")",
+            regex : "(</)(" + tag + "(?=\\s|>|$))",
             next: tag + "-end"
         }, {
             token: "string.cdata.xml",