If the xml is such that each table has it's own tag, it may be simpler to use XMLDOM ("Msxml2.DOMDocument") to break up the "Carrier" XML into a "stub" XML for each "table/dbf" tag. Then use the xml to cursor on the smaller xml stubs.
You can look at you XML file through the command window:

oXML=newObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument")
oXML.async = .f.
oXML.resolveExternals = .f.
oXML.load('myDBF.xml')
?oXML.childNodes(0).xml && Should return something like <?xml version='1.0'>
* There is an auto complete 
?oXML.parseError.reason && Path for errors.

>Hi Aleksey,
>
>I have finally got round to applying this suggestion to our live XML file. Problem is the Child.ParentID field is .null., any ideas why that might be. I guess it is the 'parent::/' which is not getting evaluated as expected but can't find any way of looking at what is going on. Is there any way of debuging the parent::/ line to see if it is working correctly?
>
>Our XML has six tables within it.
>
>Thx,
> Nick

Imagination is more important than knowledge