Index: Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py	(revision 66861)
+++ Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py	(working copy)
@@ -187,6 +187,11 @@
 
     tail = None # text after end tag, if any
 
+    ##
+    # (Attribute) True if this element's values are all initialized.
+
+    initialized = False
+
     def __init__(self, tag, attrib):
         self.tag = tag
         self.attrib = attrib
@@ -923,24 +928,25 @@
             try:
                 item = self._events[self._index]
             except IndexError:
-                if self._parser is None:
-                    self.root = self._root
-                    try:
-                        raise StopIteration
-                    except NameError:
-                        raise IndexError
-                # load event buffer
                 del self._events[:]
                 self._index = 0
-                data = self._file.read(16384)
-                if data:
-                    self._parser.feed(data)
-                else:
-                    self._root = self._parser.close()
-                    self._parser = None
             else:
-                self._index = self._index + 1
-                return item
+                if item[1].initialized:
+                    self._index = self._index + 1
+                    return item
+            if self._parser is None:
+                self.root = self._root
+                try:
+                    raise StopIteration
+                except NameError:
+                    raise IndexError
+            # load event buffer
+            data = self._file.read(16384)
+            if data:
+                self._parser.feed(data)
+            else:
+                self._root = self._parser.close()
+                self._parser = None
 
     try:
         iter
@@ -1041,6 +1047,7 @@
     def close(self):
         assert len(self._elem) == 0, "missing end tags"
         assert self._last != None, "missing toplevel element"
+        self._last.initialized = True
         return self._last
 
     def _flush(self):
@@ -1074,6 +1081,8 @@
 
     def start(self, tag, attrs):
         self._flush()
+        if self._last is not None:
+            self._last.initialized = True
         self._last = elem = self._factory(tag, attrs)
         if self._elem:
             self._elem[-1].append(elem)