diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_utils_iterators.py b/scrapy/tests/test_utils_iterators.py
index 264197333..554b6e364 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_utils_iterators.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_utils_iterators.py
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@ import os
 import libxml2
 from twisted.trial import unittest
 
-from scrapy.utils.iterators import csviter, xmliter, _xmliter_lxml, _xmliter_regex
+from scrapy.utils.iterators import csviter, xmliter
+from scrapy.contrib_exp.iterators import xmliter_lxml
 from scrapy.http import XmlResponse, TextResponse
 from scrapy.tests import get_testdata
 
@@ -90,12 +91,8 @@ class XmliterTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         )
 
 
-class RegexXmliterTestCase(XmliterTestCase):
-    xmliter = staticmethod(_xmliter_regex)
-
-
 class LxmlXmliterTestCase(XmliterTestCase):
-    xmliter = staticmethod(_xmliter_lxml)
+    xmliter = staticmethod(xmliter_lxml)
     try:
         import lxml
     except ImportError:
diff --git a/scrapy/utils/iterators.py b/scrapy/utils/iterators.py
index 22a95606b..9f745503f 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/iterators.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/iterators.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ from scrapy.utils.python import re_rsearch, str_to_unicode
 from scrapy.utils.response import body_or_str
 
 
-def _xmliter_regex(obj, nodename):
+def xmliter(obj, nodename):
     """Return a iterator of XPathSelector's over all nodes of a XML document,
        given tha name of the node to iterate. Useful for parsing XML feeds.
 
@@ -31,46 +31,6 @@ def _xmliter_regex(obj, nodename):
         yield XmlXPathSelector(text=nodetext).select('//' + nodename)[0]
 
 
-def _xmliter_lxml(obj, nodename):
-    reader = _StreamReader(obj)
-    iterable = etree.iterparse(reader, tag=nodename, encoding=reader.encoding)
-    for _, node in iterable:
-        nodetext = etree.tostring(node)
-        node.clear()
-        yield XmlXPathSelector(text=nodetext).select('//' + nodename)[0]
-
-class _StreamReader(object):
-
-    def __init__(self, obj):
-        self._ptr = 0
-        if isinstance(obj, Response):
-            self._text, self.encoding = obj.body, obj.encoding
-        else:
-            self._text, self.encoding = obj, 'utf-8'
-        self._is_unicode = isinstance(self._text, unicode)
-
-    def read(self, n=65535):
-        self.read = self._read_unicode if self._is_unicode else self._read_string
-        return self.read(n).lstrip()
-
-    def _read_string(self, n=65535):
-        s, e = self._ptr, self._ptr + n
-        self._ptr = e
-        return self._text[s:e]
-
-    def _read_unicode(self, n=65535):
-        s, e = self._ptr, self._ptr + n
-        self._ptr = e
-        return self._text[s:e].encode('utf-8')
-
-
-try:
-    from lxml import etree
-    xmliter = _xmliter_lxml
-except ImportError:
-    xmliter = _xmliter_regex
-
-
 def csviter(obj, delimiter=None, headers=None, encoding=None):
     """ Returns an iterator of dictionaries from the given csv object