diff --git a/src/util/virxml.c b/src/util/virxml.c
index f55b9a362c..02693d14ed 100644
--- a/src/util/virxml.c
+++ b/src/util/virxml.c
@@ -1408,3 +1408,11 @@ virXPathContextNodeRestore(virXPathContextNodeSavePtr save)
 
     save->ctxt->node = save->node;
 }
+
+
+void
+virXMLNamespaceFormatNS(virBufferPtr buf,
+                        virXMLNamespace const *ns)
+{
+    virBufferAsprintf(buf, " xmlns:%s='%s'", ns->prefix, ns->href());
+}
diff --git a/src/util/virxml.h b/src/util/virxml.h
index 61520968ae..cdea116196 100644
--- a/src/util/virxml.h
+++ b/src/util/virxml.h
@@ -261,3 +261,7 @@ struct _virXMLNamespace {
 };
 typedef struct _virXMLNamespace virXMLNamespace;
 typedef virXMLNamespace *virXMLNamespacePtr;
+
+void
+virXMLNamespaceFormatNS(virBufferPtr buf,
+                        virXMLNamespace const *ns);