I am using Flex and a URLLoader. I call the loadXML in the CreationComplete event
private var loader:URLLoader; private var list:XML; private function loadXML():void { loader = new URLLoader(new URLRequest("http://www.nmh.org/sitemap.xml"); loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, fileLoadedHandler); } private function fileLoadedHandler(e:Event):void { list = new XML(e.target,data); }