diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6b26e44..8c82dbc 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ Allowed values are as follows:
 - `chunks`: Allows you to add only some chunks (e.g. only the unit-test chunk)
 - `chunksSortMode`: Allows to control how chunks should be sorted before they are included to the html. Allowed values: 'none' | 'auto' | 'dependency' | {function} - default: 'auto'
 - `excludeChunks`: Allows you to skip some chunks (e.g. don't add the unit-test chunk)
+- `xhtml`: `true | false` If `true` render the `link` tags as self-closing, XHTML compliant. Default is `false`
 
 Here's an example webpack config illustrating how to use these options:
 ```javascript
diff --git a/spec/HtmlWebpackPluginSpec.js b/spec/HtmlWebpackPluginSpec.js
index 65dadf1..5be9cfa 100644
--- a/spec/HtmlWebpackPluginSpec.js
+++ b/spec/HtmlWebpackPluginSpec.js
@@ -394,7 +394,7 @@ describe('HtmlWebpackPlugin', function () {
         new HtmlWebpackPlugin(),
         new ExtractTextPlugin('styles.css')
       ]
-    }, ['<link href="styles.css"'], null, done);
+    }, ['<link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet">'], null, done);
   });
 
   it('should work with the css extract plugin on windows and protocol relative urls support (#205)', function (done) {
@@ -478,6 +478,26 @@ describe('HtmlWebpackPlugin', function () {
     }, ['<link href="styles.css?%hash%"'], null, done);
   });
 
+  it('should output xhtml link stylesheet tag', function (done) {
+    var ExtractTextPlugin = require('extract-text-webpack-plugin');
+    testHtmlPlugin({
+      entry: path.join(__dirname, 'fixtures/theme.js'),
+      output: {
+        path: OUTPUT_DIR,
+        filename: 'index_bundle.js'
+      },
+      module: {
+        loaders: [
+          { test: /\.css$/, loader: ExtractTextPlugin.extract('style-loader', 'css-loader') }
+        ]
+      },
+      plugins: [
+        new HtmlWebpackPlugin({xhtml: true}),
+        new ExtractTextPlugin('styles.css')
+      ]
+    }, ['<link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet"/>'], null, done);
+  });
+
   it('prepends the webpack public path to script src', function (done) {
     testHtmlPlugin({
       entry: path.join(__dirname, 'fixtures/index.js'),
@@ -893,6 +913,23 @@ describe('HtmlWebpackPlugin', function () {
     }, [/<link rel="shortcut icon" href="[^"]+\.ico">/], null, done);
   });
 
+  it('adds a favicon with xhtml enabled', function (done) {
+    testHtmlPlugin({
+      entry: path.join(__dirname, 'fixtures/index.js'),
+      output: {
+        path: OUTPUT_DIR,
+        filename: 'index_bundle.js'
+      },
+      plugins: [
+        new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
+          inject: true,
+          xhtml: true,
+          favicon: path.join(__dirname, 'fixtures/favicon.ico')
+        })
+      ]
+    }, [/<link rel="shortcut icon" href="[^"]+\.ico"\/>/], null, done);
+  });
+
   it('shows an error if the favicon could not be load', function (done) {
     testHtmlPlugin({
       entry: path.join(__dirname, 'fixtures/index.js'),