How to get rid of double escaping (`&`) when use Maven filters for xml files?

I use Maven 3 filters to fulfil place holders in xml files. But this requires that the inserted value is (already) xml escaped. What I want is: that Maven take care of escaping the value while putting it in the xml file.

What I have so fare:

Excerpt from the filtered xml file:

<Resource name="jdbc/dbConnection"
    url="${it.testDb.jdbc}"
    ...
    />

The Propery from the Maven pom:

<it.testDb.jdbc>
       jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/testdb?useUnicode=true&amp;amp;characterEncoding=utf8
</it.testDb.jdbc>

You noticed that I have to use &. and this is what I want to get rid of, instead I want to write only & (the first & is because Maven load the parameter from an XML file (pom.xml), thats ok, but the second amp; only needed because Maven does not escape the string while writing, and this is what I want to get rid of.)

So is there a way that Maven escape the the value to xml-style when it puts the parameter in the file while filtering?