Yum error TypeError Parsing primary.xml error Start tag expected not found

On a server, i yum stopped working with the error

# yum list
Loading "priorities" plugin
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/yum", line 29, in ?
yummain.main(sys.argv[1:])
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 105, in main
result, resultmsgs = base.doCommands()
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 289, in doCommands
self._getTs()
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/depsolve.py", line 85, in _getTs
self._getTsInfo()
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/depsolve.py", line 91, in _getTsInfo
self._tsInfo.setDatabases(self.rpmdb, self.pkgSack)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 537, in <lambda>
pkgSack = property(fget=lambda self: self._getSacks(),
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 392, in _getSacks
self.repos.populateSack(which=repos)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/repos.py", line 242, in populateSack
sack.populate(repo, mdtype, callback, cacheonly)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 168, in populate
dobj = repo_cache_function(xml, csum)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/sqlitecachec.py", line 42, in getPrimary
self.repoid))
TypeError: Parsing primary.xml error: Start tag expected, '<' not found

# 

I tried removing yum and installing yum from rpm package.

I still get the same error after yum install.

This is fixed by reinstalled libxml2 with zlib support from source.

These already installed on the server, but for some reason it won't work properly.

I have fixed with following

cd /usr/local/src
wget http://www.gzip.org/zlib/zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz
tar -zxvf zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz
cd /usr/local/src/zlib-1.2.3
make clean
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
make install

cd /usr/local/src
wget ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/libxml2-cvs-snapshot.tar.gz
tar -zxvf libxml2-cvs-snapshot.tar.gz
cd /usr/local/src/libxml2-*
./configure --with-zlib=/usr/local
make
make install

• Errors
• yum