diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/utils/response.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/utils/response.py
index 63fa3f686..3e16d92b1 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/utils/response.py
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/utils/response.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ scrapy.http.Response objects
 """
 
 from scrapy.xpath import XPathSelector
+from scrapy.http.response import ResponseBody
 
 def new_response_from_xpaths(response, xpaths):
     """Return a new response constructed by applying the given xpaths to the
@@ -11,5 +12,5 @@ def new_response_from_xpaths(response, xpaths):
     """
     xs = XPathSelector(response)
     parts = [''.join([n for n in xs.x(x).extract()]) for x in xpaths]
-    new_body = ''.join(parts)
-    return response.replace(body=new_body)
+    new_body_content = ''.join(parts)
+    return response.replace(body=ResponseBody(content=new_body_content, declared_encoding=response.body.get_declared_encoding()))