diff --git a/rdflib/compat.py b/rdflib/compat.py
index 6c71489497..310d9ff027 100644
--- a/rdflib/compat.py
+++ b/rdflib/compat.py
@@ -23,3 +23,36 @@ def numeric_greater(a, b):
 
     def numeric_greater(a, b):
         return a > b
+
+
+try:
+  from lxml import etree
+  print("running with lxml.etree")
+except ImportError:
+  try:
+    # Python 2.5
+    import xml.etree.cElementTree as etree
+    print("running with cElementTree on Python 2.5+")
+  except ImportError:
+    try:
+      # Python 2.5
+      import xml.etree.ElementTree as etree
+      print("running with ElementTree on Python 2.5+")
+    except ImportError:
+      try:
+        # normal cElementTree install
+        import cElementTree as etree
+        print("running with cElementTree")
+      except ImportError:
+        try:
+          # normal ElementTree install
+          import elementtree.ElementTree as etree
+          print("running with ElementTree")
+        except ImportError:
+          print("Failed to import ElementTree from any known place")
+
+try:
+    etree_register_namespace = etree.register_namespace
+except AttributeError:
+    def etree_register_namespace(prefix, uri):
+        etree._namespace_map[uri] = prefix
diff --git a/rdflib/plugins/sparql/results/xmlresults.py b/rdflib/plugins/sparql/results/xmlresults.py
index 85c33882e9..b31f9513b4 100644
--- a/rdflib/plugins/sparql/results/xmlresults.py
+++ b/rdflib/plugins/sparql/results/xmlresults.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 from xml.dom import XML_NAMESPACE
 from xml.sax.xmlreader import AttributesNSImpl
 
-from xml.etree import cElementTree as ElementTree
+from rdflib.compat import etree
 
 from rdflib import Literal, URIRef, BNode, Graph, Variable
 from rdflib.query import (
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ def __init__(self, source):
         if isinstance(xmlstring, unicode):
             xmlstring = xmlstring.encode('utf-8')
         try:
-            tree = ElementTree.fromstring(xmlstring)
+            tree = etree.fromstring(xmlstring)
         except Exception, e:
             try:
                 raise e.__class__("error parsing %r: %s" % (xmlstring, e))
diff --git a/rdflib/plugins/stores/sparqlstore.py b/rdflib/plugins/stores/sparqlstore.py
index d3557b3839..aff8c3d606 100644
--- a/rdflib/plugins/stores/sparqlstore.py
+++ b/rdflib/plugins/stores/sparqlstore.py
@@ -13,9 +13,8 @@
 
 import re
 import collections
-import contextlib
-import urllib2
 import warnings
+import contextlib
 
 try:
     from SPARQLWrapper import SPARQLWrapper, XML, POST, GET, URLENCODED, POSTDIRECTLY
@@ -24,20 +23,7 @@
         "SPARQLWrapper not found! SPARQL Store will not work." +
         "Install with 'easy_install SPARQLWrapper'")
 
-import sys
-if getattr(sys, 'pypy_version_info', None) is not None \
-    or sys.platform.startswith('java') \
-        or sys.version_info[:2] < (2, 6):
-    # import elementtree as etree
-    from elementtree import ElementTree
-    assert ElementTree
-else:
-    try:
-        from xml.etree import ElementTree
-        assert ElementTree
-    except ImportError:
-        from elementtree import ElementTree
-
+from rdflib.compat import etree, etree_register_namespace
 from rdflib.plugins.stores.regexmatching import NATIVE_REGEX
 
 from rdflib.store import Store
@@ -46,9 +32,6 @@
 from rdflib.graph import DATASET_DEFAULT_GRAPH_ID
 from rdflib.term import Node
 
-import httplib
-import urlparse
-
 class NSSPARQLWrapper(SPARQLWrapper):
     nsBindings = {}
 
@@ -90,7 +73,7 @@ def injectPrefixes(self, query):
 BNODE_IDENT_PATTERN = re.compile('(?P<label>_\:[^\s]+)')
 SPARQL_NS = Namespace('http://www.w3.org/2005/sparql-results#')
 sparqlNsBindings = {u'sparql': SPARQL_NS}
-ElementTree._namespace_map["sparql"] = SPARQL_NS
+etree_register_namespace("sparql", SPARQL_NS)
 
 
 def _node_from_result(node):
@@ -422,7 +405,7 @@ def triples(self, (s, p, o), context=None):
         self.setQuery(query)
 
         with contextlib.closing(SPARQLWrapper.query(self).response) as res:
-            doc = ElementTree.parse(res)
+            doc = etree.parse(res)
 
         # ElementTree.dump(doc)
         for rt, vars in _traverse_sparql_result_dom(
@@ -454,8 +437,10 @@ def __len__(self, context=None):
             if self._is_contextual(context):
                 self.addParameter("default-graph-uri", context.identifier)
             self.setQuery(q)
+
             with contextlib.closing(SPARQLWrapper.query(self).response) as res:
-                doc = ElementTree.parse(res)
+                doc = etree.parse(res)
+
             rt, vars = iter(
                 _traverse_sparql_result_dom(
                     doc,
@@ -492,7 +477,7 @@ def contexts(self, triple=None):
             self.setQuery('SELECT ?name WHERE { GRAPH ?name {} }')
 
         with contextlib.closing(SPARQLWrapper.query(self).response) as res:
-            doc = ElementTree.parse(res)
+            doc = etree.parse(res)
 
         return (
             rt.get(Variable("name"))