diff --git a/aws/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/aws/handlers/ParseAWSErrorFromXmlContent.java b/aws/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/aws/handlers/ParseAWSErrorFromXmlContent.java
index 6c84464379..b4b06978cb 100755
--- a/aws/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/aws/handlers/ParseAWSErrorFromXmlContent.java
+++ b/aws/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/aws/handlers/ParseAWSErrorFromXmlContent.java
@@ -71,7 +71,8 @@ public class ParseAWSErrorFromXmlContent implements HttpErrorHandler {
          AWSError error = null;
          String message = null;
          if (response.getPayload().getContentType() != null
-                  && response.getPayload().getContentType().indexOf("xml") != -1) {
+                  && (response.getPayload().getContentType().indexOf("xml") != -1 || response.getPayload()
+                           .getContentType().indexOf("unknown") != -1)) {
             error = utils.parseAWSErrorFromContent(request, response);
             if (error != null) {
                message = error.getMessage();
diff --git a/aws/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/aws/handlers/ParseAWSErrorFromXmlContentTest.java b/aws/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/aws/handlers/ParseAWSErrorFromXmlContentTest.java
index 3b9ca782a7..de6081daaa 100644
--- a/aws/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/aws/handlers/ParseAWSErrorFromXmlContentTest.java
+++ b/aws/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/aws/handlers/ParseAWSErrorFromXmlContentTest.java
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ public class ParseAWSErrorFromXmlContentTest {
 
    @Test
    public void test400WithInvalidGroupDuplicateIllegalStateException() {
-      assertCodeMakes("GET", URI.create("https://amazonaws.com/foo"), 400, "",
+      assertCodeMakes("GET", URI.create("https://amazonaws.com/foo"), 400,"Bad Request", "application/unknown",
                "<Error><Code>InvalidGroup.Duplicate</Code></Error>", IllegalStateException.class);
    }