Problem with htmlentities function in xmp tag

[netvision]

Hai Everyone

Iam usign Backbase AJAX with PHP.
Iam having problem with including the htmlentities fucntion within the xmp tag. Actually the conversion is not working.But thats works fine if the xmp tags are removed.

Code is as follows:
$content=htmlen tities($article['article_descri ption'], ENT_QUOTES);
Can anyone please help me.

Thanks and Regards
Hema Malini