diff --git a/maven-plugin-tools-api/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/util/PluginUtils.java b/maven-plugin-tools-api/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/util/PluginUtils.java
index 8e318f8..276638b 100644
--- a/maven-plugin-tools-api/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/util/PluginUtils.java
+++ b/maven-plugin-tools-api/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/util/PluginUtils.java
@@ -233,8 +233,10 @@ public final class PluginUtils
     }
 
     /**
-     * @param description Javadoc description with HTML tags
-     * @return the description with valid HTML tags
+     * Fixes some javadoc comment to become a valid XHTML snippet.
+     * 
+     * @param description Javadoc description with HTML tags, may be <code>null</code>.
+     * @return The description with valid XHTML tags, never <code>null</code>.
      */
     public static String makeHtmlValid( String description )
     {
diff --git a/maven-plugin-tools-api/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/util/PluginUtilsTest.java b/maven-plugin-tools-api/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/util/PluginUtilsTest.java
index 047f0ea..5ab8e24 100644
--- a/maven-plugin-tools-api/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/util/PluginUtilsTest.java
+++ b/maven-plugin-tools-api/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/tools/plugin/util/PluginUtilsTest.java
@@ -132,6 +132,10 @@ public class PluginUtilsTest
         javadoc = "Generates <i>something</i> <b> for the project.";
         assertEquals( "Generates <i>something</i> <b> for the project.</b>", PluginUtils.makeHtmlValid( javadoc ) );
 
+        // wrong XHTML
+        javadoc = "Line1<br>Line2";
+        assertEquals( "Line1<br/>Line2", PluginUtils.makeHtmlValid( javadoc ).replaceAll( "\\s", "" ) );
+
         // special characters
         javadoc = "& &amp; < > \u00A0";
         assertEquals( "&amp; &amp; &lt; &gt; \u00A0", PluginUtils.makeHtmlValid( javadoc ) );