diff --git a/src/tools/xml_tools.py b/src/tools/xml_tools.py
index ac2bf35c..dafc2507 100644
--- a/src/tools/xml_tools.py
+++ b/src/tools/xml_tools.py
@@ -1354,13 +1354,12 @@ class ElementParser(object):
 
 
 def expandNewLinesToXHTML(text):
-    """If not present yet, add a <br /> before all \n occurences.
+    """Replace two or more "\n" with "\n<br />\n".
 
     @param text(unicode)
     @return unicode
     """
-    # if present, replace <br> (HTML), <br > and <br/> at end of line with <br /> (XHTML)
-    return re.sub(r"<br[ ]?/?>\n", "\n", text).replace("\n", "<br />\n")
+    return re.sub(r"\n{2,}", "\n<br />\n", text)
 
 
 def decapsulateDomishContent(elt):