Post URL and read xml response though PHP socket

need to post request in URL and read response in xml.i tried using curl but response time is large,so i want to try with socket,can anyone pls tell how to make the below possible using socket program

<?
$ch = curl_init();

//Define curl options in an array
$options = array(CURLOPT_URL => "http://ift.tt/1CFJsRm;",

        CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT => 120,          // timeout on connect 
        CURLOPT_TIMEOUT        => 200,          // timeout on response 
        CURLOPT_POST            => 1,            // sending post data 
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS     => $curl_data,    // post vars 
        CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST => 0,            // don't verify ssl 
        CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER => false,        // 
        CURLOPT_VERBOSE        => 1,               // 
        CURLOPT_HEADER => "Content-Type:application/xml", //
        CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH => CURLAUTH_BASIC,        //
);

//Set options against curl object
$curl_data = "var1=60&var2=test"; 
curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);


$start = array_sum(explode(' ', microtime()));
$data = curl_exec($ch);
$stop = array_sum(explode(' ', microtime()));
$totalTime = $stop - $start;

?>