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="176" ns="0" title="Build uClinux for EA2478 Board" />
      <page pageid="243" ns="0" title="EWEB1" />
      <page pageid="897" ns="0" title="Fail2ban and Denyhosts" />
      <page pageid="239" ns="0" title="Fixing Xauthority" />
      <page pageid="228" ns="0" title="LaTeX" />
      <page pageid="858" ns="0" title="Omni Turris" />
      <page pageid="879" ns="0" title="PB:Get an Internet connection" />
      <page pageid="870" ns="0" title="PocketBeagle" />
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>