Problems with UTF8 and XML file generating

[itamar 0]

Hello guys , I've been reading articles here for a lot of time , but never needed anything ... now it is time :)

I'm building a system for generating reports in flash ... the data is generated from SQL in php
and is being inserted into an XML file which I generate through php...

basically the flash swf file is intened to receive the xml file as input , but it seems so that it can't receive it if I dont make the xml file utf8 ... the php file is ISO-8859-8 (ANSI) and the strings which appear inside the XML file are in hebrew...

basically the flash shows all the data correctly , except for the hebrew strings which in original (in MySQL) sit in an UTF-8 collation.

so basically they arrive inside the php file as variables in ANSI and the XML string , before being written into a file , is also ANSI , due to the php file being ANSI.

once I try writing it as is (ANSI) , into the xml file, the flash dont work.. only if I do utf8_encode , on the xml string before writing to the file.. it works.

but it works with the loss of the hebrew letters into gibrish..

if anyone can help me get the special hebrew chars to the right mode.. please do
I'm on a short deadline! ;(