PHP graceful exit -- Catching mysql error in an XML output

I'm trying to replace all the mysql_*() or die() constructs is a script and replace die with a more graceful -- and more useful exit upon an error.

Attached is my code using PHP 5 that does not do what I'd expect at all. The output contains an empty <message> tag.

Could someone point out what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks

<?php
function errorXML($error_message){
		$xml_output = "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>\n";
		$xml_output .= "<root>\n";
		$xml_output .= "\t<error>\n";
		$xml_output .= "\t\t<message>".$error_message."</message>\n";
		$xml_output .= "\t</error>\n";
		$xml_output .= "</root>";
		outputXML($xml_output);
		exit();
}

function outputXML($xml_output){
		header("Content-type: text/xml");
		echo ($xml_output);
}

$linkID = @mysql_connect("badhost", "baduser", "badpass") or errorXML(mysql_error());
@mysql_select_db("badsite", $linkID) or errorXML(mysql_error());


?>

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