How do I omit XML declaration in output?

I have a process that selects data from a SQL database and combines it using XSLT to produce an Excel file.

I now have a wish to move the data from an XML file into the database. At a point in the process, I will continue to use XSLT to produce the final output, so I need to retain the escaped ampersands in the data.

I have written a stylesheet to create a flat data file for uploading into the database. When I set the output method attribute to "text", the ampersands are output without the escaping. That is what I expect, but not what I need.

When I set the output method attribute to "xml", the ampersands are escaped, this is also what I expect (and what I need). The fly in the ointment is that with the method set to "xml", the xml document declaration is also output on the first line. This too is what I expect, unfortunately, not what I want. Is there a setting that will cause the processor to omit the document declaration, or will I have to remove it in a separate section of the processing pipeline?
-- 
Charles Knell
cknell@xxxxxxxxxx - email