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>
    <alltransclusions gatcontinue="Tables|1624" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <pages>
      <page pageid="1280" ns="12" title="Help:Contents" />
      <page pageid="1281" ns="12" title="Help:Cheat Sheet" />
      <page pageid="1451" ns="0" title="Mecha Clothing" />
      <page pageid="1496" ns="0" title="Members And Their Sites" />
      <page pageid="1507" ns="0" title="Flickerific" />
      <page pageid="1518" ns="0" title="Bunny Wishlists" />
      <page pageid="1557" ns="0" title="IRC Channels" />
      <page pageid="1564" ns="0" title="Las Vegas Meetup" />
      <page pageid="1574" ns="0" title="Asheville Meetup" />
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>