diff --git a/HTMLparser.c b/HTMLparser.c
index 4d43b93..1a4d80d 100644
--- a/HTMLparser.c
+++ b/HTMLparser.c
@@ -3448,7 +3448,8 @@
 htmlCheckEncoding(htmlParserCtxtPtr ctxt, const xmlChar *attvalue) {
     const xmlChar *encoding;
 
-    if ((ctxt == NULL) || (attvalue == NULL))
+    if ((ctxt == NULL) || (attvalue == NULL) ||
+        (ctxt->options & HTML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC))
 	return;
 
     /* do not change encoding */
@@ -3500,7 +3501,9 @@
 		xmlSwitchToEncoding(ctxt, handler);
 		ctxt->charset = XML_CHAR_ENCODING_UTF8;
 	    } else {
-		ctxt->errNo = XML_ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ENCODING;
+		htmlParseErr(ctxt, XML_ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ENCODING,
+		             "htmlCheckEncoding: unknown encoding %s\n",
+			     encoding, NULL);
 	    }
 	}
 
@@ -6537,6 +6540,10 @@
 	ctxt->options |= HTML_PARSE_NODEFDTD;
         options -= HTML_PARSE_NODEFDTD;
     }
+    if (options & HTML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC) {
+	ctxt->options |= HTML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC;
+        options -= HTML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC;
+    }
     ctxt->dictNames = 0;
     return (options);
 }
diff --git a/HTMLtree.c b/HTMLtree.c
index b508583..f23ae02 100644
--- a/HTMLtree.c
+++ b/HTMLtree.c
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@
 	if (enc != XML_CHAR_ENCODING_UTF8) {
 	    handler = xmlFindCharEncodingHandler(encoding);
 	    if (handler == NULL)
-		return(-1);
+		htmlSaveErr(XML_SAVE_UNKNOWN_ENCODING, NULL, encoding);
 	}
     }
 
@@ -562,11 +562,9 @@
 	    }
 
 	    handler = xmlFindCharEncodingHandler(encoding);
-	    if (handler == NULL) {
-		*mem = NULL;
-		*size = 0;
-		return;
-	    }
+	    if (handler == NULL)
+                htmlSaveErr(XML_SAVE_UNKNOWN_ENCODING, NULL, encoding);
+
 	} else {
 	    handler = xmlFindCharEncodingHandler(encoding);
 	}
@@ -587,7 +585,7 @@
 	return;
     }
 
-	htmlDocContentDumpFormatOutput(buf, cur, NULL, format);
+    htmlDocContentDumpFormatOutput(buf, cur, NULL, format);
 
     xmlOutputBufferFlush(buf);
     if (buf->conv != NULL) {
@@ -1061,7 +1059,7 @@
 
 	    handler = xmlFindCharEncodingHandler(encoding);
 	    if (handler == NULL)
-		return(-1);
+		htmlSaveErr(XML_SAVE_UNKNOWN_ENCODING, NULL, encoding);
 	} else {
 	    handler = xmlFindCharEncodingHandler(encoding);
 	}
@@ -1120,7 +1118,7 @@
 
 	    handler = xmlFindCharEncodingHandler(encoding);
 	    if (handler == NULL)
-		return(-1);
+		htmlSaveErr(XML_SAVE_UNKNOWN_ENCODING, NULL, encoding);
 	}
     }
 
@@ -1181,7 +1179,7 @@
 
 	    handler = xmlFindCharEncodingHandler(encoding);
 	    if (handler == NULL)
-		return(-1);
+		htmlSaveErr(XML_SAVE_UNKNOWN_ENCODING, NULL, encoding);
 	}
         htmlSetMetaEncoding(cur, (const xmlChar *) encoding);
     } else {
diff --git a/include/libxml/HTMLparser.h b/include/libxml/HTMLparser.h
index fbcc811..10a3d65 100644
--- a/include/libxml/HTMLparser.h
+++ b/include/libxml/HTMLparser.h
@@ -184,7 +184,8 @@
     HTML_PARSE_NOBLANKS	= 1<<8,	/* remove blank nodes */
     HTML_PARSE_NONET	= 1<<11,/* Forbid network access */
     HTML_PARSE_NOIMPLIED= 1<<13,/* Do not add implied html/body... elements */
-    HTML_PARSE_COMPACT  = 1<<16 /* compact small text nodes */
+    HTML_PARSE_COMPACT  = 1<<16,/* compact small text nodes */
+    HTML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC=1<<21 /* ignore internal document encoding hint */
 } htmlParserOption;
 
 XMLPUBFUN void XMLCALL
diff --git a/include/libxml/parser.h b/include/libxml/parser.h
index 47b3df1..aabb96c 100644
--- a/include/libxml/parser.h
+++ b/include/libxml/parser.h
@@ -1105,8 +1105,9 @@
 				   crash if you try to modify the tree) */
     XML_PARSE_OLD10	= 1<<17,/* parse using XML-1.0 before update 5 */
     XML_PARSE_NOBASEFIX = 1<<18,/* do not fixup XINCLUDE xml:base uris */
-    XML_PARSE_HUGE      = 1<<19, /* relax any hardcoded limit from the parser */
-    XML_PARSE_OLDSAX    = 1<<20 /* parse using SAX2 interface from before 2.7.0 */
+    XML_PARSE_HUGE      = 1<<19,/* relax any hardcoded limit from the parser */
+    XML_PARSE_OLDSAX    = 1<<20,/* parse using SAX2 interface before 2.7.0 */
+    XML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC= 1<<21 /* ignore internal document encoding hint */
 } xmlParserOption;
 
 XMLPUBFUN void XMLCALL
diff --git a/parser.c b/parser.c
index 9ab8641..02a1877 100644
--- a/parser.c
+++ b/parser.c
@@ -9922,6 +9922,13 @@
 	} else {
 	    xmlFatalErr(ctxt, XML_ERR_STRING_NOT_STARTED, NULL);
 	}
+
+        /*
+         * Non standard parsing, allowing the user to ignore encoding
+         */
+        if (ctxt->options & XML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC)
+            return(encoding);
+
 	/*
 	 * UTF-16 encoding stwich has already taken place at this stage,
 	 * more over the little-endian/big-endian selection is already done
@@ -14561,6 +14568,10 @@
 	ctxt->options |= XML_PARSE_OLDSAX;
         options -= XML_PARSE_OLDSAX;
     }
+    if (options & XML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC) {
+	ctxt->options |= XML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC;
+        options -= XML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC;
+    }
     ctxt->linenumbers = 1;
     return (options);
 }
diff --git a/xmllint.c b/xmllint.c
index 8af56cd..14c64be 100644
--- a/xmllint.c
+++ b/xmllint.c
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@
 #endif /* LIBXML_TREE_ENABLED */
 static int recovery = 0;
 static int noent = 0;
+static int noenc = 0;
 static int noblanks = 0;
 static int noout = 0;
 static int nowrap = 0;
@@ -2983,6 +2984,7 @@
     printf("\t--recover : output what was parsable on broken XML documents\n");
     printf("\t--huge : remove any internal arbitrary parser limits\n");
     printf("\t--noent : substitute entity references by their value\n");
+    printf("\t--noenc : ignore any encoding specified inside the document\n");
     printf("\t--noout : don't output the result tree\n");
     printf("\t--path 'paths': provide a set of paths for resources\n");
     printf("\t--load-trace : print trace of all external entites loaded\n");
@@ -3137,6 +3139,10 @@
 	         (!strcmp(argv[i], "--noent"))) {
 	    noent++;
 	    options |= XML_PARSE_NOENT;
+	} else if ((!strcmp(argv[i], "-noenc")) ||
+	         (!strcmp(argv[i], "--noenc"))) {
+	    noenc++;
+	    options |= XML_PARSE_IGNORE_ENC;
 	} else if ((!strcmp(argv[i], "-nsclean")) ||
 	         (!strcmp(argv[i], "--nsclean"))) {
 	    options |= XML_PARSE_NSCLEAN;