diff --git a/lib/xmlparse.c b/lib/xmlparse.c

index 4b43e6132..a39377c23 100644

--- a/lib/xmlparse.c

+++ b/lib/xmlparse.c

@@ -7412,7 +7412,7 @@ getElementType(XML_Parser parser, const ENCODING *enc, const char *ptr,

 static XML_Char *

 copyString(const XML_Char *s, const XML_Memory_Handling_Suite *memsuite) {

-  int charsRequired = 0;

+  size_t charsRequired = 0;

   XML_Char *result;

   /* First determine how long the string is */