diff -r e61780cd2c78 Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py	Mon Sep 09 13:47:16 2013 -0500
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py	Mon Sep 09 21:29:34 2013 +0200
@@ -985,10 +985,8 @@
                     ])
                 self._feed(parser, "</root>\n", chunk_size)
                 self.assert_event_tags(parser, [('end', 'root')])
-                # Closing sets the `root` attribute
-                self.assertIs(parser.root, None)
-                parser.close()
-                self.assertEqual(parser.root.tag, 'root')
+                root = parser.close()
+                self.assertEqual(root.tag, 'root')
 
     def test_feed_while_iterating(self):
         parser = ET.XMLPullParser()
@@ -1021,10 +1019,8 @@
             ])
         self._feed(parser, "</root>\n")
         self.assert_event_tags(parser, [('end', '{namespace}root')])
-        # Closing sets the `root` attribute
-        self.assertIs(parser.root, None)
-        parser.close()
-        self.assertEqual(parser.root.tag, '{namespace}root')
+        root = parser.close()
+        self.assertEqual(root.tag, '{namespace}root')
 
     def test_ns_events(self):
         parser = ET.XMLPullParser(events=('start-ns', 'end-ns'))
@@ -1064,10 +1060,9 @@
             ('end', '{foo}element'),
             ])
         self._feed(parser, "</root>")
-        parser.close()
-        self.assertIs(parser.root, None)
+        root = parser.close()
         self.assert_event_tags(parser, [('end', 'root')])
-        self.assertEqual(parser.root.tag, 'root')
+        self.assertEqual(root.tag, 'root')
 
         parser = ET.XMLPullParser(events=('start',))
         self._feed(parser, "<!-- comment -->\n")
@@ -1085,8 +1080,8 @@
             ('start', '{foo}empty-element'),
             ])
         self._feed(parser, "</root>")
-        parser.close()
-        self.assertEqual(parser.root.tag, 'root')
+        root = parser.close()
+        self.assertEqual(root.tag, 'root')
 
     def test_events_sequence(self):
         # Test that events can be some sequence that's not just a tuple or list
diff -r e61780cd2c78 Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py
--- a/Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py	Mon Sep 09 13:47:16 2013 -0500
+++ b/Lib/xml/etree/ElementTree.py	Mon Sep 09 21:29:34 2013 +0200
@@ -1220,7 +1220,6 @@
         # _elementtree.c expects a list, not a deque
         self._events_queue = []
         self._index = 0
-        self.root = self._root = None
         self._parser = _parser or XMLParser(target=TreeBuilder())
         # wire up the parser for event reporting
         if events is None:
@@ -1237,10 +1236,9 @@
                 self._events_queue.append(exc)
 
     def close(self):
-        self._root = self._parser.close()
+        root = self._parser.close()
         self._parser = None
-        if self._index >= len(self._events_queue):
-            self.root = self._root
+        return root
 
     def read_events(self):
         events = self._events_queue
@@ -1263,8 +1261,6 @@
                 raise event
             else:
                 yield event
-        if self._parser is None:
-            self.root = self._root
 
 
 class _IterParseIterator:
@@ -1275,14 +1271,14 @@
         self._parser = XMLPullParser(events=events, _parser=parser)
         self._file = source
         self._close_file = close_source
-        self.root = None
+        self.root = self._root = None
 
     def __next__(self):
         while 1:
             for event in self._parser.read_events():
                 return event
             if self._parser._parser is None:
-                self.root = self._parser.root
+                self.root = self._root
                 if self._close_file:
                     self._file.close()
                 raise StopIteration
@@ -1291,7 +1287,7 @@
             if data:
                 self._parser.feed(data)
             else:
-                self._parser.close()
+                self._root = self._parser.close()
 
     def __iter__(self):
         return self