Retrieving a MySQL recordset as XML

Hello
I want to write a function that will take any SQL query as a parameter, and
generate XML that represents the recordset.

e.g. "SELECT * FROM Customers"

returns:

<recordset>
    <record id="1" name="Mr Smith" purchases="2"/>
    <record id="2" name="Mr Jones" purchases="25"/>
    <record id="3" name="Mr Davis" purchases="7"/>
</recordset>

There are two approaches I think. One is to use the XML DOM, the other is
simply to join lots of strings together. What is the best approach?

Thanks (and this is my first post to a newsgroup, and my first post to this
one, so excuse me if I've missed something vital!)

cheers
ian ;-)