diff --git a/inc/parser/xhtml.php b/inc/parser/xhtml.php
index bb7adf1da23e4ef68734761cdd9feb4b753bd8b2..2335c8b65e4d665db3ecef720a80c9182d7559d7 100644
--- a/inc/parser/xhtml.php
+++ b/inc/parser/xhtml.php
@@ -93,6 +93,9 @@ class Doku_Renderer_xhtml extends Doku_Renderer {
         if($this->info['toc']){
             $this->doc = $this->render_TOC().$this->doc;
         }
+
+        // make sure there are no empty paragraphs
+        $this->doc = preg_replace('#<p(>| .*?>)\s*</p>#','',$this->doc);
     }
 
     /**