Web Service and xml

Wondering if anyone has done this before. I have a service I'm connecting to and I'm trying to get its stream into an xml file or stream.
If I access the service from the provider via http url
domain path/itemservice.asmx/FetchItemInfo?itemnumber=4196
I get  in the browser:
<ArrayOfItem>
?
<Item>
<ItemID>1234</ItemID>
<RequestedItem>4196</RequestedItem>
<ItemNumber>4196</ItemNumber>
<Found>true</Found>
etc
My code behind aspx page is doing this :
svc = new ItemService.ItemService();
items = svc.FetchItemInfo("4196");Response.W ...