on windows xp gtkrc error if utf8

[Andrea Zagli <azagli inwind it>]

i installed mingw, msys and gtk+ bundle package on a pc with windows xp

then i created the gtkrc file to use the windows theme

if the file is utf8 i received the following error when i run gtk-demo

e:\mingw\etc\gtk-2.0\gtkrc:1: error: unexpected character `\357',  
expected keyword - e.g. `style'

if i convert the file to ansii gtk-demo works without errors and with  
the windows theme (i used notepad++ for the conversion)

is it normal? is it a bug? is it a windows setting?

thanks in advance