Index: maven-artifact/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/repository/metadata/DefaultRepositoryMetadataManager.java
===================================================================
--- maven-artifact/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/repository/metadata/DefaultRepositoryMetadataManager.java	(revision 556387)
+++ maven-artifact/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/repository/metadata/DefaultRepositoryMetadataManager.java	(working copy)
@@ -28,11 +28,11 @@
 import org.apache.maven.wagon.TransferFailedException;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.logging.AbstractLogEnabled;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.IOUtil;
+import org.codehaus.plexus.util.ReaderFactory;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.pull.XmlPullParserException;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
-import java.io.FileReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.Reader;
 import java.util.Date;
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@
         Reader fileReader = null;
         try
         {
-            fileReader = new FileReader( mappingFile );
+            fileReader = ReaderFactory.newXmlReader( mappingFile );
 
             MetadataXpp3Reader mappingReader = new MetadataXpp3Reader();
 
Index: maven-artifact/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/repository/metadata/AbstractRepositoryMetadata.java
===================================================================
--- maven-artifact/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/repository/metadata/AbstractRepositoryMetadata.java	(revision 556387)
+++ maven-artifact/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/repository/metadata/AbstractRepositoryMetadata.java	(working copy)
@@ -25,10 +25,10 @@
 import org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.io.xpp3.MetadataXpp3Reader;
 import org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.io.xpp3.MetadataXpp3Writer;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.IOUtil;
+import org.codehaus.plexus.util.ReaderFactory;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.pull.XmlPullParserException;
 
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileReader;
 import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.Reader;
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@
 
             try
             {
-                reader = new FileReader( metadataFile );
+                reader = ReaderFactory.newXmlReader( metadataFile );
 
                 metadata = mappingReader.read( reader, false );
             }
Index: maven-settings/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/settings/DefaultMavenSettingsBuilder.java
===================================================================
--- maven-settings/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/settings/DefaultMavenSettingsBuilder.java	(revision 556387)
+++ maven-settings/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/settings/DefaultMavenSettingsBuilder.java	(working copy)
@@ -27,14 +27,15 @@
 import org.apache.maven.settings.validation.SettingsValidator;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.logging.AbstractLogEnabled;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.IOUtil;
+import org.codehaus.plexus.util.ReaderFactory;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.interpolation.EnvarBasedValueSource;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.interpolation.PropertiesBasedValueSource;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.interpolation.RegexBasedInterpolator;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.pull.XmlPullParserException;
 
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Reader;
 import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.util.Iterator;
@@ -148,10 +149,10 @@
         {
             getLogger().debug( "Settings file is a proper file. Reading." );
 
-            FileReader reader = null;
+            Reader reader = null;
             try
             {
-                reader = new FileReader( settingsFile );
+                reader = ReaderFactory.newXmlReader( settingsFile );
 
                 SettingsXpp3Reader modelReader = new SettingsXpp3Reader();
 
Index: maven-profile/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/profiles/DefaultMavenProfilesBuilder.java
===================================================================
--- maven-profile/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/profiles/DefaultMavenProfilesBuilder.java	(revision 556387)
+++ maven-profile/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/profiles/DefaultMavenProfilesBuilder.java	(working copy)
@@ -22,13 +22,14 @@
 import org.apache.maven.profiles.io.xpp3.ProfilesXpp3Reader;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.logging.AbstractLogEnabled;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.IOUtil;
+import org.codehaus.plexus.util.ReaderFactory;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.interpolation.EnvarBasedValueSource;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.interpolation.RegexBasedInterpolator;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.pull.XmlPullParserException;
 
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Reader;
 import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 
@@ -48,14 +49,14 @@
         if ( profilesXml.exists() )
         {
             ProfilesXpp3Reader reader = new ProfilesXpp3Reader();
-            FileReader fileReader = null;
+            Reader profileReader = null;
             try
             {
-                fileReader = new FileReader( profilesXml );
+                profileReader = ReaderFactory.newXmlReader( profilesXml );
                 
                 StringWriter sWriter = new StringWriter();
                 
-                IOUtil.copy( fileReader, sWriter );
+                IOUtil.copy( profileReader, sWriter );
                 
                 String rawInput = sWriter.toString();
                 
@@ -78,7 +79,7 @@
             }
             finally
             {
-                IOUtil.close( fileReader );
+                IOUtil.close( profileReader );
             }
         }
 
Index: maven-project/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/project/validation/DefaultModelValidatorTest.java
===================================================================
--- maven-project/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/project/validation/DefaultModelValidatorTest.java	(revision 556387)
+++ maven-project/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/project/validation/DefaultModelValidatorTest.java	(working copy)
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 import org.apache.maven.model.io.xpp3.MavenXpp3Reader;
 import org.apache.maven.project.AbstractMavenProjectTestCase;
 
-import java.io.FileReader;
 import java.io.Reader;
 import java.util.List;
 
@@ -219,7 +218,7 @@
     private ModelValidationResult validate( String testName )
         throws Exception
     {
-        Reader input = new FileReader( getFileForClasspathResource( "validation/" + testName ) );
+        Reader input = ReaderFactory.newXmlReader( getFileForClasspathResource( "validation/" + testName ) );
 
         MavenXpp3Reader reader = new MavenXpp3Reader();
 
Index: maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java
===================================================================
--- maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java	(revision 556387)
+++ maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java	(working copy)
@@ -78,16 +78,14 @@
 import org.codehaus.plexus.personality.plexus.lifecycle.phase.Initializable;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.IOUtil;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.StringUtils;
+import org.codehaus.plexus.util.ReaderFactory;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.pull.XmlPullParserException;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
-import java.io.FileReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.Reader;
 import java.io.StringReader;
-import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
@@ -136,8 +134,7 @@
 */
 
 /**
- * @version $Id: DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java,v 1.37 2005/03/08 01:55:22
- *          trygvis Exp $
+ * @version $Id$
  */
 public class DefaultMavenProjectBuilder
     extends AbstractLogEnabled
@@ -634,7 +631,7 @@
 
         Model model = new Model();
 
-        model.setModelVersion( "4.0.0" );
+        model.setModelVersion( MAVEN_MODEL_VERSION );
 
         model.setArtifactId( projectArtifact.getArtifactId() );
 
@@ -1123,7 +1120,7 @@
         Reader reader = null;
         try
         {
-            reader = new FileReader( file );
+            reader = ReaderFactory.newXmlReader( file );
             return readModel( projectId, file.getAbsolutePath(), reader, strict );
         }
         catch ( FileNotFoundException e )
@@ -1145,15 +1142,11 @@
     private Model readModel( String projectId, String pomLocation, Reader reader, boolean strict )
         throws IOException, InvalidProjectModelException
     {
-        StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
+        String modelSource = IOUtil.toString( reader );
 
-        IOUtil.copy( reader, sw );
-
-        String modelSource = sw.toString();
-
-        if ( modelSource.indexOf( "<modelVersion>4.0.0" ) < 0 )
+        if ( modelSource.indexOf( "<modelVersion>" + MAVEN_MODEL_VERSION ) < 0 )
         {
-            throw new InvalidProjectModelException( projectId, pomLocation, "Not a v4.0.0 POM." );
+            throw new InvalidProjectModelException( projectId, pomLocation, "Not a v" + MAVEN_MODEL_VERSION  + " POM." );
         }
 
         StringReader sReader = new StringReader( modelSource );
@@ -1172,10 +1165,10 @@
     private Model readModel( String projectId, URL url, boolean strict )
         throws ProjectBuildingException
     {
-        InputStreamReader reader = null;
+        Reader reader = null;
         try
         {
-            reader = new InputStreamReader( url.openStream() );
+            reader = ReaderFactory.newXmlReader( url.openStream() );
             return readModel( projectId, url.toExternalForm(), reader, strict );
         }
         catch ( IOException e )

