diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/link/__init__.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/link/__init__.py
index 41efb4420..e03672241 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/link/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/link/__init__.py
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 from HTMLParser import HTMLParser
+from lxml import etree
 
 from scrapy.link import Link
 from scrapy.utils.python import unique as unique_list
 from scrapy.utils.url import safe_url_string, urljoin_rfc as urljoin
 
-class LinkExtractor(HTMLParser):
+class HtmlParserLinkExtractor(HTMLParser):
 
     """LinkExtractor are used to extract links from web pages. They are
     instantiated and later "applied" to a Response using the extract_links
@@ -26,10 +27,10 @@ class LinkExtractor(HTMLParser):
       * a tag name which is used to search for links (defaults to "a")
       * a function which receives a tag name and returns whether to scan it
     * attr (string or function)
-      * an attribute name which is used to search for links (defaults to "href")
-      * a function which receives an attribute name and returns whether to scan it
+      * an attrsute name which is used to search for links (defaults to "href")
+      * a function which receives an attrsute name and returns whether to scan it
     * process (funtion)
-      * a function wich receives the attribute value before assigning it
+      * a function wich receives the attrsute value before assigning it
     * unique - if True the same urls won't be extracted twice, otherwise the
       same urls will be extracted multiple times (with potentially different link texts)
     """
@@ -94,3 +95,68 @@ class LinkExtractor(HTMLParser):
         it doesn't contain any patterns"""
         return True
 
+
+class LxmlLinkExtractor(object):
+    def __init__(self, tag="a", attr="href", process=None, unique=False):
+        scan_tag = tag if callable(tag) else lambda t: t == tag
+        scan_attr = attr if callable(attr) else lambda a: a == attr
+        process_attr = process if callable(process) else lambda v: v
+
+        self.unique = unique
+
+        target = LinkTarget(scan_tag, scan_attr, process_attr)
+        self.parser = etree.HTMLParser(target=target)
+
+
+    def _extract_links(self, response_text, response_url, response_encoding):
+        self.base_url, self.links = etree.HTML(response_text, self.parser) 
+
+        links = unique_list(self.links, key=lambda link: link.url) if self.unique else self.links
+
+        ret = []
+        base_url = self.base_url if self.base_url else response_url
+        for link in links:
+            link.url = urljoin(base_url, link.url)
+            link.url = safe_url_string(link.url, response_encoding)
+            link.text = link.text.decode(response_encoding)
+            ret.append(link)
+
+        return ret
+
+    def extract_links(self, response):
+        # wrapper needed to allow to work directly with text
+        return self._extract_links(response.body, response.url, 
+                                   response.encoding)
+
+
+class LinkTarget(object):
+    def __init__(self, scan_tag, scan_attr, process_attr):
+        self.scan_tag = scan_tag
+        self.scan_attr = scan_attr
+        self.process_attr = process_attr
+
+        self.base_url = None
+        self.links = []
+
+        self.current_link = None
+
+    def start(self, tag, attrs):
+        if tag == 'base':
+            self.base_url = dict(attrs).get('href')
+        if self.scan_tag(tag):
+            for attr, value in attrs.iteritems():
+                if self.scan_attr(attr):
+                    url = self.process_attr(value)
+                    link = Link(url=url)
+                    self.links.append(link)
+                    self.current_link = link
+
+    def end(self, tag):
+        self.current_link = None
+
+    def data(self, data):
+        if self.current_link and not self.current_link.text:
+            self.current_link.text = data.strip()
+
+    def close(self):
+        return self.base_url, self.links