diff --git a/mast/reference.go b/mast/reference.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f661775
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mast/reference.go
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+package mast
+
+import "github.com/gomarkdown/markdown/ast"
+
+// ReferenceBlock represents markdown reference node.
+type ReferenceBlock struct {
+	ast.Leaf
+}
diff --git a/mparser/bibliography.go b/mparser/bibliography.go
index ef3dc8a..7ab118f 100644
--- a/mparser/bibliography.go
+++ b/mparser/bibliography.go
@@ -124,12 +124,12 @@ func ReferenceHook(data []byte) (ast.Node, []byte, int) {
 		return nil, nil, 0
 	}
 
-	node := &ast.HTMLBlock{}
+	node := &mast.ReferenceBlock{}
 	node.Literal = fmtReference(ref)
 	return node, nil, len(ref)
 }
 
-// IfReference returns wether data contains a reference.
+// IsReference returns wether data contains a reference.
 func IsReference(data []byte) ([]byte, bool) {
 	if !bytes.HasPrefix(data, []byte("<reference ")) {
 		return nil, false
diff --git a/render/man/renderer.go b/render/man/renderer.go
index ef533f5..21f6ff9 100644
--- a/render/man/renderer.go
+++ b/render/man/renderer.go
@@ -366,6 +366,8 @@ func (r *Renderer) RenderNode(w io.Writer, node ast.Node, entering bool) ast.Wal
 	case *mast.Bibliography:
 	case *mast.BibliographyItem:
 	case *mast.DocumentIndex, *mast.IndexLetter, *mast.IndexItem, *mast.IndexSubItem, *mast.IndexLink:
+	case *mast.ReferenceBlock:
+		// ignore
 	case *ast.Footnotes:
 		r.footnotes(w, node, entering)
 	case *ast.Text:
diff --git a/render/markdown/renderer.go b/render/markdown/renderer.go
index 0f78ee2..e971e25 100644
--- a/render/markdown/renderer.go
+++ b/render/markdown/renderer.go
@@ -635,6 +635,10 @@ func (r *Renderer) RenderNode(w io.Writer, node ast.Node, entering bool) ast.Wal
 	case *mast.Bibliography:
 	case *mast.BibliographyItem:
 	case *mast.DocumentIndex, *mast.IndexLetter, *mast.IndexItem, *mast.IndexSubItem, *mast.IndexLink:
+	case *mast.ReferenceBlock:
+		r.out(w, node.Literal)
+		r.endline(w)
+		r.newline(w)
 	case *ast.Footnotes:
 		// do nothing, we're not outputing a footnote list
 	case *ast.Text:
diff --git a/render/mhtml/hook.go b/render/mhtml/hook.go
index fe91eef..2815ed0 100644
--- a/render/mhtml/hook.go
+++ b/render/mhtml/hook.go
@@ -99,6 +99,9 @@ func (r RenderOptions) RenderHook(w io.Writer, node ast.Node, entering bool) (as
 		io.WriteString(w, ` <a class="index-return" href="#`+string(node.Destination)+`">`)
 		io.WriteString(w, IndexReturnLinkContents)
 		return ast.GoToNext, true
+	case *mast.ReferenceBlock:
+		// ignore these for HTML output as this is XML and not used at all.
+		return ast.GoToNext, true
 	}
 	return ast.GoToNext, false
 }
diff --git a/render/xml/renderer.go b/render/xml/renderer.go
index b02a060..0c17cfc 100644
--- a/render/xml/renderer.go
+++ b/render/xml/renderer.go
@@ -636,6 +636,10 @@ func (r *Renderer) RenderNode(w io.Writer, node ast.Node, entering bool) ast.Wal
 		r.bibliographyItem(w, node)
 	case *mast.DocumentIndex, *mast.IndexLetter, *mast.IndexItem, *mast.IndexSubItem, *mast.IndexLink:
 		// generated by xml2rfc, do nothing.
+	case *mast.ReferenceBlock:
+		r.out(w, node.Literal)
+		r.cr(w)
+		r.cr(w)
 	case *ast.Text:
 		r.text(w, node)
 	case *ast.Softbreak:
@@ -667,7 +671,7 @@ func (r *Renderer) RenderNode(w io.Writer, node ast.Node, entering bool) ast.Wal
 	case *ast.HTMLSpan:
 		r.htmlSpan(w, node)
 	case *ast.HTMLBlock:
-		// discard; we use these only for <references>.
+		r.out(w, node.Literal)
 	case *ast.List:
 		r.list(w, node, entering)
 	case *ast.ListItem:
diff --git a/render/xml2/renderer.go b/render/xml2/renderer.go
index c106a83..2d38a61 100644
--- a/render/xml2/renderer.go
+++ b/render/xml2/renderer.go
@@ -707,6 +707,10 @@ func (r *Renderer) RenderNode(w io.Writer, node ast.Node, entering bool) ast.Wal
 		r.bibliographyItem(w, node)
 	case *mast.DocumentIndex, *mast.IndexLetter, *mast.IndexItem, *mast.IndexSubItem, *mast.IndexLink:
 		// generated by xml2rfc, do nothing.
+	case *mast.ReferenceBlock:
+		r.out(w, node.Literal)
+		r.cr(w)
+		r.cr(w)
 	case *ast.Text:
 		r.text(w, node)
 	case *ast.Softbreak:
@@ -763,7 +767,7 @@ func (r *Renderer) RenderNode(w io.Writer, node ast.Node, entering bool) ast.Wal
 	case *ast.HTMLSpan:
 		r.htmlSpan(w, node) // only html comments are allowed.
 	case *ast.HTMLBlock:
-		// discard; we use these only for <references>.
+		r.out(w, node.Literal)
 	case *ast.List:
 		r.list(w, node, entering)
 	case *ast.ListItem: