Special Characters part of the word

Hi,

I am trying to parse xml file with expat. I have different equations and
keywords containing special characters ( < , > , & ) e.g. A<B & D>E.  Expat
returns a word whenever it finds a word delimiter. It also considers
aforementioned special characters as word delimiters. I need to get the
whole equation to match. Is there any way i can specify word delimiters in
Expat ?

Any help in this regard is highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Junaid