oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLParseException: Start of root element expected.

Hi:

I get the following exception while trying to parse a file using DOM Parser

oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLParseException: Start of root element expected.
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLError.flushErrors1(XMLError.java:324)
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.NonValidatingParser.parseRootElementNonValidatingParser.java:316)
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.NonValidatingParser.parseDocument(NonValidatingParser.java:278)
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:267)

The relevant code is --
URL out_xml_url = new URL("file://" + getOutFileSpec()); //create URL
from the file
File newFile = new File(m_outfileSpec);
if (!newFile.exists())
      {
       System.out.print("The file does not exists");
      }
    else
    {
     System.out.print("The file exists");
     }
    if(!newFile.canWrite())
     {
      System.out.println("The file cannot be written");
     }
    else
    {
      System.out.println("The file can be written");
    }
parser.setValidationMode(XMLConstants.NONVALIDATING);
parser.setBaseURL(out_xml_url);
parser.parse(new FileInputStream(newFile)); //get the error here
XMLDocument document1 =parser.getDocument();

How should I resolve this error?
I even tried using
parser.parse(out_xml_url); but still get the same error.