diff --git a/Modules/_elementtree.c b/Modules/_elementtree.c
index 6348f52..641f272 100644
--- a/Modules/_elementtree.c
+++ b/Modules/_elementtree.c
@@ -2146,7 +2146,7 @@
     for (i = 0; i < 256; i++)
         s[i] = i;
     
-    u = PyUnicode_Decode(s, 256, name, "replace");
+    u = PyUnicode_Decode((char*) s, 256, name, "replace");
     if (!u)
         return XML_STATUS_ERROR;