diff --git a/src/helma/framework/core/Application.java b/src/helma/framework/core/Application.java
index 03028aa5..73204284 100644
--- a/src/helma/framework/core/Application.java
+++ b/src/helma/framework/core/Application.java
@@ -77,6 +77,8 @@ public class Application extends UnicastRemoteObject implements IRemoteApp, Runn
 
     protected CacheMap skincache = new CacheMap (100);
 
+    String charset;
+
     private CryptFile pwfile;
 
 
@@ -126,6 +128,8 @@ public class Application extends UnicastRemoteObject implements IRemoteApp, Runn
 
 	nmgr = new NodeManager (this, dbDir.getAbsolutePath (), props);
 
+	charset = props.getProperty ("charset", "ISO-8859-1");
+
 	debug = "true".equalsIgnoreCase (props.getProperty ("debug"));
 	try {
 	    requestTimeout = Long.parseLong (props.getProperty ("requestTimeout", "60"))*1000l;
@@ -297,7 +301,12 @@ public class Application extends UnicastRemoteObject implements IRemoteApp, Runn
 	    if (primaryRequest) {
 	        activeRequests.remove (req);
 	        releaseEvaluator (ev);
-	        res.close ();  // this needs to be done before sending it back
+	        // response needs to be closed/encoded before sending it back
+	        try {
+	            res.close (charset);
+	        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException uee) {
+	            logEvent ("Unsupported response encoding: "+uee.getMessage());
+	        }
 	    } else {
 	        res.waitForClose ();
 	    }