from lxml import etree
s = """<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<tmx version="1.4a"/>"""
tree = etree.fromstring(s)
header = etree.SubElement(tree,'header',{'adminlang': 'EN'})
body = etree.SubElement(tree,'body')
print etree.tostring(tree, encoding="UTF-8",
xml_declaration=True,
pretty_print=True,
doctype='<!DOCTYPE tmx SYstem "tmx14a.dtd">')
=>
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE tmx SYstem "tmx14a.dtd">
<tmx version="1.4a">
<header adminlang="EN"/>
<body/>
</tmx>