You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query-continue>
    <alllinks alcontinue="Black_bean_curry|439" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <alllinks>
      <l ns="0" title="Background Image" />
      <l ns="0" title="Background and foreground threads" />
      <l ns="0" title="Backups" />
      <l ns="0" title="Ball.java" />
      <l ns="0" title="Banner command" />
      <l ns="0" title="Basic Unix file permissions" />
      <l ns="0" title="Basic houmous recipe" />
      <l ns="0" title="Basic html/css" />
      <l ns="0" title="Basic tomcat web.xml file" />
      <l ns="0" title="Beginners SQL Server tutorial" />
    </alllinks>
  </query>
</api>