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 galcontinue="Bruce_Perens|1424" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <pages>
      <page pageid="1393" ns="0" title="Free Software License" />
      <page pageid="1398" ns="0" title="Hacker Generation" />
      <page pageid="1399" ns="0" title="Hacker Generation Narrative" />
      <page pageid="1492" ns="0" title="Cyberspace" />
      <page pageid="1503" ns="0" title="Site Map" />
      <page pageid="1529" ns="0" title="Program" />
      <page pageid="1530" ns="0" title="Test Interdb" />
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>