Python object <-> XML

[Samuel]

Hi,

Say you have the following XML:

<item ref="1">
  <name>item 1</name>
</item>
<item ref="2">
  <name>item 2</name>
</item>
<group>
  <item ref="1" />
  <item ref="2" />
  <name>my group</name>
</group>

Is there an easy way (i.e. without writing a sax/dom parser) to load
this into a (number of) Python object(s), manipulate the instance, and
save the result back to XML?

-Samuel