Convert an lxml.etree node tree into a dict.

elem2dict.py

def elem2dict(node):
    """
    Convert an lxml.etree node tree into a dict.
    """
    d = {}
    for e in node.iterchildren():
        key = e.tag.split('}')[1] if '}' in e.tag else e.tag
        value = e.text if e.text else elem2dict(e)
        d[key] = value
    return d

The function doesn't convert root tag into a dict. So you should care about a root tag outside a recursion if you need it.
for ex. testtest2 will be converted to {a: test1, b: test2} NOT {'root': {a: test1, b: test2}}