JBAS011059: Failed to parse ".../example.ear/META-INF/application.xml" in JBoss EAP 6

Issue

We are getting this error message for parsing application.xml as below:

ERROR [org.jboss.msc.service.fail] (MSC service thread 1-2) MSC000001: Failed to start service jboss.deployment.unit."example.ear".STRUCTURE: org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.unit."example.ear".STRUCTURE: JBAS018733: Failed to process phase STRUCTURE of deployment "example.ear"
    at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:123) [jboss-as-server-7.1.3.Final-redhat-4.jar:7.1.3.Final-redhat-4]
    at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.startService(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1811) [jboss-msc-1.0.2.GA-redhat-2.jar:1.0.2.GA-redhat-2]
    at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.run(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1746) [jboss-msc-1.0.2.GA-redhat-2.jar:1.0.2.GA-redhat-2]
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886) [rt.jar:1.6.0_37]
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908) [rt.jar:1.6.0_37]
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662) [rt.jar:1.6.0_37]
Caused by: org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitProcessingException: JBAS011059: Failed to parse "/c:/java/jboss-eap-6.0.1/jboss-eap-6.0/standalone/content/example.ear/META-INF/application.xml"
    at org.jboss.as.ee.structure.EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.handleSpecMetadata(EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.java:105)
    at org.jboss.as.ee.structure.EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.deploy(EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.java:66)
    at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:116) [jboss-as-server-7.1.3.Final-redhat-4.jar:7.1.3.Final-redhat-4]
    ... 5 more
Caused by: com.ctc.wstx.exc.WstxParsingException: Illegal processing instruction target ("xml"); xml (case insensitive) is reserved by the specs.
 at [row,col {unknown-source}]: [2,5]
    at com.ctc.wstx.sr.StreamScanner.constructWfcException(StreamScanner.java:606)
    at com.ctc.wstx.sr.StreamScanner.throwParseError(StreamScanner.java:479)
    at com.ctc.wstx.sr.BasicStreamReader.readPIPrimary(BasicStreamReader.java:3891)
    at com.ctc.wstx.sr.BasicStreamReader.nextFromProlog(BasicStreamReader.java:2025)
    at com.ctc.wstx.sr.BasicStreamReader.next(BasicStreamReader.java:1102)
    at org.jboss.metadata.parser.spec.EarMetaDataParser.parse(EarMetaDataParser.java:58)
    at org.jboss.as.ee.structure.EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.handleSpecMetadata(EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.java:102)