libxml2 and namespaces

[Debarshi Ray <debarshi ray gmail com>]

Does anybody know if there is a way to turn off libxml's namespace
support in a way similar to Mono/.Net's XmlTextReader.Namespaces [1]
property? Or can I inform the xmlTextReader about a namespace which is
not defined in the string it will be parsing?

Thanks,
Debarshi

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmltextreader.namespaces.aspx
-- 
One reason that life is complex is that it has a real part and an
imaginary part.
    -- Andrew Koenig