?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'ASCII'? pl/sql xml parser

Question

When ever I parse a document which has the
<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'ASCII'?> tag as the first line hangs the pl/sql xml parser . If I remove the "encoding = 'ASCII'" from the file everything works fine ! What is the problem ?
version 8.1.6 / plsql parser v2 / hpux 11x
Here is the input file
<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'ASCII'?>
!--- This is a comment -->
<person>
<employee>
<lastname>GHANTASALA</lastname>
<firstname>SREE</firstname>
<age>32</age>
</employee>
<employee>
<lastname>TAMATAM</lastname>
<firstname>SATISH</firstname>
<age>30</age>
</employee>
</person>
Here is my program
declare
p xmlparser.parser;
doc xmldom.DOMDocument;
dir varchar2(100) := '/apps/oracle/drugstore';
errfile varchar2(30) := 'err.txt' ;
inpfile varchar2(30) := 'person.xml';
nl xmldom.DOMNodeList;
len number;
n xmldom.DOMNode;
new_node xmldom.DOMNode;
node_name varchar2(100);
node_value varchar2(100);
begin
-- new parser
p := xmlparser.newParser;
-- Set some characteristics
xmlparser.setValidationMode(p, FALSE);
xmlparser.setErrorLog(p, dir&#0124; &#0124;'/'&#0124; &#0124; errfile );
xmlparser.setBaseDir(p, dir);
-- parse input file
xmlparser.parse(p, dir&#0124; &#0124;'/'&#0124; &#0124;inpfile);
-- get document
doc := xmlparser.getDocument(p);
-- get all elements
nl := xmldom.getElementsByTagName(doc, '*');
len := xmldom.getLength(nl);
dbms_output.put_line('Length='&#0124; &#0124;len);
-- loop through elements
for i in 0..len-1 loop
n := xmldom.item(nl, i);
node_name := xmldom.getNodeName(n);
-- get the text node associated with the element node
n := xmldom.getFirstChild(n);
if xmldom.getNodeType(n) = xmldom.TEXT_NODE then
node_value := xmldom.getNodeValue(n);
if node_name='lastname' then
dbms_output.put_line('The value you are looking for is -->:'&#0124; &#0124;node_value);
if node_value = 'GHANTASALA' then
xmldom.setNodeValue(n,'TEST2');
end if;
end if;
end if;
end loop;
new_node := xmldom.makeNode(doc);
xmldom.writeToFile(new_node, dir &#0124; &#0124;'/'&#0124; &#0124;'mod.xml');
end ;
null

Answer 1

The encoding header is actually generated by
by the following piece of code in my pl/sql program .
new_node := xmldom.makeNode(doc);
xmldom.writeToFile(new_node, dir &#0124; &#0124;'/'&#0124; &#0124;'mod.xml');
Since this is a document created by the pl/sql parser, I assume there is some meaning to it !
Also why is it hanging ? PL/sql parser should tell me that it is not a valid string !