XML to Dict (Python)

def _xml_to_dict(xmltree):
    '''
    Convery an XML tree into a dict
    '''
    xmldict = {}
    for item in xmltree:
        comps = item.tag.split('}')
        name = comps[1]
        if not name in xmldict.keys():
            if len(item.getchildren()) > 0:
                xmldict[name] = _xml_to_dict(item)
            else:
                xmldict[name] = item.text
    return xmldict