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>
    <pages>
      <page pageid="34" ns="6" title="File:Crisis fi carousel 1.jpg" />
      <page pageid="31" ns="6" title="File:Public empowerment examples of best practices.pdf" />
      <page pageid="35" ns="6" title="File:Wiki promo image.jpg" />
      <page pageid="37" ns="6" title="File:Wiki promo image community.jpg" />
      <page pageid="38" ns="6" title="File:Wiki promo image empowerment.jpg" />
      <page pageid="36" ns="6" title="File:Wiki promo image technology.jpg" />
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>