--- Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py	2010-02-11 10:46:14.566507494 +0100
+++ Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py	2009-09-29 10:49:39.000000000 +0200
@@ -575,17 +575,21 @@
     # @defreturn Element
 
     def parse(self, source, parser=None):
-        if not hasattr(source, "read"):
-            source = open(source, "rb")
-        if not parser:
-            parser = XMLTreeBuilder()
-        while 1:
-            data = source.read(32768)
-            if not data:
-                break
-            parser.feed(data)
-        self._root = parser.close()
-        return self._root
+        try:
+            if not hasattr(source, "read"):
+                source = open(source, "rb")
+            if not parser:
+                parser = XMLTreeBuilder()
+            while 1:
+                data = source.read(32768)
+                if not data:
+                    break
+                parser.feed(data)
+            self._root = parser.close()
+            return self._root
+        finally:
+            if hasattr(source, "read"):
+                source.close()
 
     ##
     # Creates a tree iterator for the root element.  The iterator loops