How can I escape XML field in XML-output query?

I have following request:

SELECT XMLAGG(data) FROM
(SELECT XMLELEMENT(name item, XMLFOREST(
   title,
   body as description,
   date_created as date,
   'http://example.com/news'||id as link 
)) AS data FROM NEWS) AS smthng;

The issue is that body is actually XML itself, so the question is –
How can I escape XML field (changing < to < > to > etc.) in this query?

The naive approach would be to wrap your query around another SELECT and use replace.

SELECT replace(
    (SELECT XMLAGG(data) FROM
         (SELECT XMLELEMENT(name item, XMLFOREST(
          title,
          body as description,
          date_created as date,
          'http://example.com/news'||id as link 
         )
     ) AS data FROM NEWS) AS smthng)::text, '<', '&lt;')

And do the same for >. A easier and more elgant mthod would be to to it with the language that should deliver/process/… the XML.