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>
    <links plcontinue="1|0|How_to_use_WIKI" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <pages>
      <page pageid="1" ns="0" title="Main Page">
        <links>
          <pl ns="0" title="Accessible technology and inclusive design" />
          <pl ns="0" title="Alerting phase (phase 3)" />
          <pl ns="0" title="Community approach – involving people in crisis management" />
          <pl ns="0" title="Community approach – links to more information" />
          <pl ns="0" title="Crisis communication resources" />
          <pl ns="0" title="Data security, privacy and legal issues" />
          <pl ns="0" title="Developing public empowerment" />
          <pl ns="0" title="Early warning phase (phase 2)" />
          <pl ns="0" title="Evaluation phase (phase 6)" />
          <pl ns="0" title="Examples of best practices" />
        </links>
      </page>
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>