diff --git a/activemq-ra/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/ra/ActiveMQResourceAdapter.java b/activemq-ra/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/ra/ActiveMQResourceAdapter.java
index fd16603865..b17674e88a 100644
--- a/activemq-ra/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/ra/ActiveMQResourceAdapter.java
+++ b/activemq-ra/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/ra/ActiveMQResourceAdapter.java
@@ -355,8 +355,18 @@ public class ActiveMQResourceAdapter extends ActiveMQConnectionSupport implement
                         }
 
                         private ActiveMQConnection newConnection() throws JMSException {
-                            ActiveMQConnection connection = makeConnection();
-                            connection.start();
+                            ActiveMQConnection connection = null;
+                            try {
+                                connection = makeConnection();
+                                connection.start();
+                            } catch (JMSException ex) {
+                                if (connection != null) {
+                                    try {
+                                        connection.close();
+                                    } catch (JMSException ignore) { }
+                                }
+                                throw ex;
+                            }
                             return connection;
                         }
 
diff --git a/activemq-ra/src/test/java/org/apache/activemq/ra/ActiveMQConnectionExecutorThreadCleanUpTest.java b/activemq-ra/src/test/java/org/apache/activemq/ra/ActiveMQConnectionExecutorThreadCleanUpTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bec57d35ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/activemq-ra/src/test/java/org/apache/activemq/ra/ActiveMQConnectionExecutorThreadCleanUpTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+package org.apache.activemq.ra;
+
+import java.util.Set;
+import java.util.Iterator;
+import javax.transaction.xa.XAResource;
+
+import org.apache.activemq.broker.BrokerService;
+import org.apache.activemq.ra.ActiveMQResourceAdapter; 
+
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+
+/**
+ * Test for AMQ-6700.
+ * Will fail to connect to embedded broker using JCA and uses
+ * "ActiveMQ Connection Executor" thread to deal with low
+ * level exception. This tests verifies if this thread gets
+ * cleared up correctly after use.
+ */
+public class ActiveMQConnectionExecutorThreadCleanUpTest {
+
+    protected static Logger LOG =
+        LoggerFactory.getLogger(ActiveMQConnectionExecutorThreadCleanUpTest.class);
+    protected static final String AMQ_CONN_EXECUTOR_THREAD_NAME =
+        "ActiveMQ Connection Executor";
+    private BrokerService broker = null;
+
+
+    @Before
+    public void setUp() throws Exception {
+        LOG.info("Configuring broker programmatically.");
+        broker = new BrokerService();
+        broker.setPersistent(false);
+
+        // explicitly limiting to 0 connections so that test is unable
+        // to connect
+        broker.addConnector("tcp://localhost:0?maximumConnections=0");
+        broker.start();
+        broker.waitUntilStarted(5000);
+    }
+
+
+    @After
+    public void shutDown() throws Exception {
+        if (broker != null) {
+            if (broker.isStarted()) {
+                broker.stop();
+                broker.waitUntilStopped();
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * This test tries to create connections into the broker using the
+     * resource adapter's transaction recovery functionality.
+     * If the broker does not accept the connection, the connection's
+     * thread pool executor is used to deal with the error.
+     * This has lead to race conditions where the thread was not shutdown
+     * but got leaked.
+     * @throws Exception
+     */
+    @Test
+    public void testAMQConnectionExecutorThreadCleanUp() throws Exception {
+        LOG.info("testAMQConnectionExecutorThreadCleanUp() started.");
+
+        ActiveMQResourceAdapter ra = new ActiveMQResourceAdapter();
+        ra.setServerUrl(broker.getTransportConnectorByScheme("tcp").getPublishableConnectString());
+        LOG.info("Using brokerUrl " + ra.getServerUrl());
+
+        // running in a small loop as very occasionally the call to
+        // ActiveMQResourceAdapter.$2.makeConnection() raises an exception
+        // rather than using the connection's executor task to deal with the
+        // connection error.
+        for (int i=0; i<10; i++) {
+            LOG.debug("Iteration " + i);
+            try {
+                XAResource[] resources = ra.getXAResources(null);
+                resources[0].recover(100);
+            } catch (Exception ex) {
+                LOG.error(ex.getMessage());
+            }
+            // allow some small time for thread cleanup to happen
+            Thread.sleep(300);
+
+            // check if thread exists
+            Assert.assertFalse("Thread named \"" +
+                    AMQ_CONN_EXECUTOR_THREAD_NAME + 
+                    "\" not cleared up with ActiveMQConnection.",
+                hasActiveMQConnectionExceutorThread());
+        }
+        ra.stop();
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Retrieves all threads from JVM and checks if any thread names contain
+     * AMQ_CONN_EXECUTOR_THREAD_NAME.
+     * 
+     * @return true if such thread exists, otherwise false
+     */
+    public boolean hasActiveMQConnectionExceutorThread() {
+        // retrieve all threads
+        Set<Thread> threadSet = Thread.getAllStackTraces().keySet();
+        Iterator<Thread> iter = threadSet.iterator();
+        while (iter.hasNext()) {
+            Thread thread = (Thread)iter.next();
+            if (thread.getName().startsWith(AMQ_CONN_EXECUTOR_THREAD_NAME )) {
+                LOG.error("Thread with name {} found.", thread.getName());
+               return true;
+            }
+        }
+        LOG.debug("Thread with name {} not found.", AMQ_CONN_EXECUTOR_THREAD_NAME);
+        return false;
+    }
+}