diff --git a/spring-beans/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java b/spring-beans/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java
index 065bd502545..e08c411bba3 100644
--- a/spring-beans/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java
+++ b/spring-beans/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java
@@ -827,7 +827,11 @@ public class BeanDefinitionParserDelegate {
 				// Look for arg-type match elements.
 				List<Element> argTypeEles = DomUtils.getChildElementsByTagName(replacedMethodEle, ARG_TYPE_ELEMENT);
 				for (Element argTypeEle : argTypeEles) {
-					replaceOverride.addTypeIdentifier(argTypeEle.getAttribute(ARG_TYPE_MATCH_ATTRIBUTE));
+					String match = argTypeEle.getAttribute(ARG_TYPE_MATCH_ATTRIBUTE);
+					match = (StringUtils.hasText(match) ? match : DomUtils.getTextValue(argTypeEle));
+					if (StringUtils.hasText(match)) {
+						replaceOverride.addTypeIdentifier(match);
+					}
 				}
 				replaceOverride.setSource(extractSource(replacedMethodEle));
 				overrides.addOverride(replaceOverride);
diff --git a/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTestTypes.java b/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTestTypes.java
index f153bbc8326..cebec37bd66 100644
--- a/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTestTypes.java
+++ b/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTestTypes.java
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2009 the original author or authors.
- * 
+ * Copyright 2002-2012 the original author or authors.
+ *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
  * You may obtain a copy of the License at
@@ -540,6 +540,9 @@ abstract class OverrideOneMethod extends MethodReplaceCandidate implements Overr
 		return "replaceMe:" + someParam;
 	}
 
+	public String replaceMe(String someParam) {
+		return "replaceMe:"  + someParam;
+	}
 }
 
 
diff --git a/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTests-delegationOverrides.xml b/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTests-delegationOverrides.xml
index f16fdd99bd2..feb3bea4994 100644
--- a/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTests-delegationOverrides.xml
+++ b/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTests-delegationOverrides.xml
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<!DOCTYPE beans PUBLIC "-//SPRING//DTD BEAN 2.0//EN" "http://www.springframework.org/dtd/spring-beans-2.0.dtd">
+<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">
 
-<beans>
-	
-	<!-- 
+	<!--
 		Not yet in use: illustration of possible approach
 	-->
 	<bean id="overrideOneMethod" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.OverrideOneMethod">
@@ -80,4 +80,16 @@
 		<property name="age"><value>27</value></property>
 	</bean>
 
+	<bean id="overrideOneMethodByAttribute" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.OverrideOneMethod">
+		<replaced-method name="replaceMe" replacer="reverseReplacer">
+			<arg-type match="String"/>
+		</replaced-method>
+	</bean>
+
+	<bean id="overrideOneMethodByElement" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.OverrideOneMethod">
+		<replaced-method name="replaceMe" replacer="reverseReplacer">
+			<arg-type>String</arg-type>
+		</replaced-method>
+	</bean>
+
 </beans>
diff --git a/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTests.java b/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTests.java
index 9f9fa6e0bd0..91c0c5f4b3f 100644
--- a/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTests.java
+++ b/spring-context/src/test/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/xml/XmlBeanFactoryTests.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2009 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2012 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -1489,6 +1489,24 @@ public final class XmlBeanFactoryTests {
 		}
 	}
 
+	public @Test void testOverrideMethodByArgTypeAttribute() {
+		DefaultListableBeanFactory xbf = new DefaultListableBeanFactory();
+		XmlBeanDefinitionReader reader = new XmlBeanDefinitionReader(xbf);
+		reader.loadBeanDefinitions(DELEGATION_OVERRIDES_CONTEXT);
+		OverrideOneMethod oom = (OverrideOneMethod) xbf.getBean("overrideOneMethodByAttribute");
+		assertEquals("should not replace", "replaceMe:1", oom.replaceMe(1));
+		assertEquals("should replace", "cba", oom.replaceMe("abc"));
+	}
+
+	public @Test void testOverrideMethodByArgTypeElement() {
+		DefaultListableBeanFactory xbf = new DefaultListableBeanFactory();
+		XmlBeanDefinitionReader reader = new XmlBeanDefinitionReader(xbf);
+		reader.loadBeanDefinitions(DELEGATION_OVERRIDES_CONTEXT);
+		OverrideOneMethod oom = (OverrideOneMethod) xbf.getBean("overrideOneMethodByElement");
+		assertEquals("should not replace", "replaceMe:1", oom.replaceMe(1));
+		assertEquals("should replace", "cba", oom.replaceMe("abc"));
+	}
+
 	public static class DoSomethingReplacer implements MethodReplacer {
 
 		public Object lastArg;