diff --git a/Lib/xmlrpclib.py b/Lib/xmlrpclib.py
index 3cba39f..653c424 100644
--- a/Lib/xmlrpclib.py
+++ b/Lib/xmlrpclib.py
@@ -1539,6 +1539,9 @@
                  allow_none=0, use_datetime=0):
         # establish a "logical" server connection
 
+        if isinstance(uri, unicode):
+            uri = uri.encode('ISO-8859-1')
+
         # get the url
         import urllib
         type, uri = urllib.splittype(uri)