diff --git a/src/xercesc/dom/impl/DOMDocumentImpl.cpp b/src/xercesc/dom/impl/DOMDocumentImpl.cpp
index 4a084e327c00028deded212a0d4738be1c4c08a0..d6100d27318f2adb94cfbc31f395c6599a530199 100644
--- a/src/xercesc/dom/impl/DOMDocumentImpl.cpp
+++ b/src/xercesc/dom/impl/DOMDocumentImpl.cpp
@@ -1067,9 +1067,6 @@ DOMNode *DOMDocumentImpl::importNode(const DOMNode *source, bool deep, bool clon
             else
             {
                 DOMElementNSImpl* nsElem = (DOMElementNSImpl*)createElementNS(source->getNamespaceURI(), source->getNodeName());
-                if(source->getNamespaceURI() != 0 && *source->getNamespaceURI() != 0) {
-                    nsElem->setPrefix(source->getPrefix());
-                }
                 DOMTypeInfoImpl* clonedTypeInfo=NULL;
                 // if the source has type informations, copy them
                 DOMPSVITypeInfo* sourcePSVI=(DOMPSVITypeInfo*)source->getFeature(XMLUni::fgXercescInterfacePSVITypeInfo, 0);
@@ -1118,9 +1115,6 @@ DOMNode *DOMDocumentImpl::importNode(const DOMNode *source, bool deep, bool clon
                 newattr = (DOMAttrImpl*)createAttribute(source->getNodeName());
             else {
                 newattr = (DOMAttrImpl*)createAttributeNS(source->getNamespaceURI(), source->getNodeName());
-                if(source->getNamespaceURI() != 0 && *source->getNamespaceURI() != 0) {
-                    newattr->setPrefix(source->getPrefix());
-                }
             }
             DOMTypeInfoImpl* clonedTypeInfo=NULL;
             // if the source has type informations, copy them