+1  A: 

After a bit of browsing through XMLReader: Have you tried this:

XMLReader::setParserProperty in combination with XMLReader::SUBST_ENTITIES?

Haven't tried anything, just looks promising. Should work like

XMLReader::setParserProperty ('SUBST_ENTITIES', 0);

It seems there is no documentation on what values SUBST_ENTITIES will accept.

Cheers,

Boldewyn
I tried something similar, but couldn't get it to change behaviour. I may have used the wrong syntax, so I'll give your suggestion a try - thanks for the tip!
Mike Houston