diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/http/request/rpc.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/http/request/rpc.py
index 6e31159e8..8e95072fc 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/http/request/rpc.py
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/http/request/rpc.py
@@ -13,8 +13,10 @@ from scrapy.http.request import Request
 class XmlRpcRequest(Request):
 
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
-        params = kwargs.pop('params')
-        methodname = kwargs.pop('methodname')
+        if 'body' not in kwargs:
+            params = kwargs.pop('params')
+            methodname = kwargs.pop('methodname')
+            kwargs['body'] = xmlrpclib.dumps(params, methodname)
 
         # spec defines that requests must use POST method
         kwargs.setdefault('method', 'POST')
@@ -23,5 +25,4 @@ class XmlRpcRequest(Request):
         kwargs.setdefault('dont_filter', True)
 
         Request.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
-        self.body = xmlrpclib.dumps(params, methodname)
         self.headers.setdefault('Content-Type', 'text/xml')
diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/tests/test_http_request.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/tests/test_http_request.py
index f2bc59aab..5c99baa7a 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/tests/test_http_request.py
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/tests/test_http_request.py
@@ -259,6 +259,35 @@ class XmlRpcRequestTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(r.method, 'POST')
         self.assertTrue(r.dont_filter, True)
 
+    def test_copy(self):
+        """Test XmlRpcRequest copy"""
+
+        def somecallback():
+            pass
+
+        r1 = XmlRpcRequest("http://www.example.com", callback=somecallback,
+                methodname='login', params=('username', 'password'))
+        r1.meta['foo'] = 'bar'
+        r1.cache['lala'] = 'lolo'
+        r2 = r1.copy()
+
+        assert r1.cache
+        assert not r2.cache
+
+        assert r1.deferred is not r2.deferred
+
+        # make sure meta dict is shallow copied
+        assert r1.meta is not r2.meta, "meta must be a shallow copy, not identical"
+        self.assertEqual(r1.meta, r2.meta)
+
+        # make sure headers attribute is shallow copied
+        assert r1.headers is not r2.headers, "headers must be a shallow copy, not identical"
+        self.assertEqual(r1.headers, r2.headers)
+        self.assertEqual(r1.encoding, r2.encoding)
+        self.assertEqual(r1.dont_filter, r2.dont_filter)
+        self.assertEqual(r1.body, r2.body)
+
+
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()