I'm getting the following error when I try to startup my application on google app engine:

Failed startup of context com.google.apphosting.utils.jetty.RuntimeAppEngineWebAppContext@8fcc7b{/,/base/data/home/apps/sales-tracker/3.340980411948080671}
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'clientDao' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Cannot resolve reference to bean 'entityManagerFactory' while setting bean property 'entityManagerFactory'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'entityManagerFactory' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid XML in persistence unit from URL [file:/base/data/home/apps/sales-tracker/3.340980411948080671/WEB-INF/classes/META-INF/persistence.xml]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveReference(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:275)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveValueIfNecessary(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:104)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyPropertyValues(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1245)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.populateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1010)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:472)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory$1.run(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:409)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:380)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:264)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:261)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:185)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:164)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:429)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:728)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:380)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:255)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:199)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:45)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.startContext(ContextHandler.java:548)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.Context.startContext(Context.java:136)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.startContext(WebAppContext.java:1250)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.doStart(ContextHandler.java:517)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.doStart(WebAppContext.java:467)
    at org.mortbay.component.AbstractLifeCycle.start(AbstractLifeCycle.java:50)
    at com.google.apphosting.runtime.jetty.AppVersionHandlerMap.createHandler(AppVersionHandlerMap.java:191)
    at com.google.apphosting.runtime.jetty.AppVersionHandlerMap.getHandler(AppVersionHandlerMap.java:168)
    at com.google.apphosting.runtime.jetty.JettyServletEngineAdapter.serviceRequest(JettyServletEngineAdapter.java:123)
    at com.google.apphosting.runtime.JavaRuntime.handleRequest(JavaRuntime.java:243)
    at com.google.apphosting.base.RuntimePb$EvaluationRuntime$6.handleBlockingRequest(RuntimePb.java:5485)
    at com.google.apphosting.base.RuntimePb$EvaluationRuntime$6.handleBlockingRequest(RuntimePb.java:5483)
    at com.google.net.rpc.impl.BlockingApplicationHandler.handleRequest(BlockingApplicationHandler.java:24)
    at com.google.net.rpc.impl.RpcUtil.runRpcInApplication(RpcUtil.java:398)
    at com.google.net.rpc.impl.Server$2.run(Server.java:852)
    at com.google.tracing.LocalTraceSpanRunnable.run(LocalTraceSpanRunnable.java:56)
    at com.google.tracing.LocalTraceSpanBuilder.internalContinueSpan(LocalTraceSpanBuilder.java:536)
    at com.google.net.rpc.impl.Server.startRpc(Server.java:807)
    at com.google.net.rpc.impl.Server.processRequest(Server.java:369)
    at com.google.net.rpc.impl.ServerConnection.messageReceived(ServerConnection.java:442)
    at com.google.net.rpc.impl.RpcConnection.parseMessages(RpcConnection.java:319)
    at com.google.net.rpc.impl.RpcConnection.dataReceived(RpcConnection.java:290)
    at com.google.net.async.Connection.handleReadEvent(Connection.java:474)
    at com.google.net.async.EventDispatcher.processNetworkEvents(EventDispatcher.java:831)
    at com.google.net.async.EventDispatcher.internalLoop(EventDispatcher.java:207)
    at com.google.net.async.EventDispatcher.loop(EventDispatcher.java:103)
    at com.google.net.rpc.RpcService.runUntilServerShutdown(RpcService.java:251)
    at com.google.apphosting.runtime.JavaRuntime$RpcRunnable.run(JavaRuntime.java:404)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'entityManagerFactory' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid XML in persistence unit from URL [file:/base/data/home/apps/sales-tracker/3.340980411948080671/WEB-INF/classes/META-INF/persistence.xml]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1338)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:473)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory$1.run(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:409)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:380)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:264)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:261)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:185)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:164)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveReference(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:269)
    ... 47 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid XML in persistence unit from URL [file:/base/data/home/apps/sales-tracker/3.340980411948080671/WEB-INF/classes/META-INF/persistence.xml]
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.persistenceunit.PersistenceUnitReader.readPersistenceUnitInfos(PersistenceUnitReader.java:151)
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.persistenceunit.DefaultPersistenceUnitManager.readPersistenceUnitInfos(DefaultPersistenceUnitManager.java:303)
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.persistenceunit.DefaultPersistenceUnitManager.preparePersistenceUnitInfos(DefaultPersistenceUnitManager.java:275)
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.persistenceunit.DefaultPersistenceUnitManager.afterPropertiesSet(DefaultPersistenceUnitManager.java:260)
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.createNativeEntityManagerFactory(LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:192)
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEnti

My persistence.xml looks as follows, as taken from the GAE documentation

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<persistence xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence"
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence

http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_1_0.xsd"version="1.0">
    <persistence-unit name="transactions-optional">
        <provider>org.datanucleus.store.appengine.jpa.DatastorePersistenceProvider</provider>
        <properties>
            <property name="datanucleus.NontransactionalRead" value="true" />
            <property name="datanucleus.NontransactionalWrite" value="true" />
            <property name="datanucleus.ConnectionURL" value="appengine" />
        </properties>
    </persistence-unit>
</persistence>

Is there something wrong with my persistence file? Or could my errors be caused elsewhere? Can someone please give me some pointers

thanks