diff --git a/VERSION.txt b/VERSION.txt
index 1c46a40f741..b9a8ba1698f 100644
--- a/VERSION.txt
+++ b/VERSION.txt
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ jetty-7.0.0.RC6-SNAPSHOT
  + JETTY-1090 resolve potential infinite loop with webdav listener
  + JETTY-1092 MultiPartFilter can be pushed into infinite loop
  + JETTY-1093 Request.toString throws exception when size exceeds 4k
+ + JETTY-1098 Default form encoding is UTF8 
  + 288514 AbstractConnector does not handle InterruptedExceptions on shutdown
  + 288466 LocalConnector is not thread safe
  + 288772 Failure to connect does not set status to EXCEPTED
diff --git a/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/UrlEncoded.java b/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/UrlEncoded.java
index a7d647c4dec..d9f338a7881 100644
--- a/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/UrlEncoded.java
+++ b/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/UrlEncoded.java
@@ -492,17 +492,17 @@ public class UrlEncoded extends MultiMap
     public static void decodeTo(InputStream in, MultiMap map, String charset, int maxLength)
     throws IOException
     {
-        if (charset==null || StringUtil.__ISO_8859_1.equals(charset))
-        {
-            decode88591To(in,map,maxLength);
-            return;
-        }
-
-        if (StringUtil.__UTF8.equalsIgnoreCase(charset))
+        if (charset==null || StringUtil.__UTF8.equalsIgnoreCase(charset))
         {
             decodeUtf8To(in,map,maxLength);
             return;
         }
+        
+        if (StringUtil.__ISO_8859_1.equals(charset))
+        {
+            decode88591To(in,map,maxLength);
+            return;
+        }
 
         if (StringUtil.__UTF16.equalsIgnoreCase(charset)) // Should be all 2 byte encodings
         {
diff --git a/jetty-util/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/URLEncodedTest.java b/jetty-util/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/URLEncodedTest.java
index e65cd622e65..2d94430e919 100644
--- a/jetty-util/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/URLEncodedTest.java
+++ b/jetty-util/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/URLEncodedTest.java
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ public class URLEncodedTest extends junit.framework.TestCase
     {
         String [][] charsets = new String[][]
         {
-           {StringUtil.__ISO_8859_1,null},
+           {StringUtil.__UTF8,null},
            {StringUtil.__ISO_8859_1,StringUtil.__ISO_8859_1},
            {StringUtil.__UTF8,StringUtil.__UTF8},
            {StringUtil.__UTF16,StringUtil.__UTF16},