[AUCTeX] running xelatex instead of pdflatex

[Patrick Gundlach]

Hi,

on some texts, I'd like to use the 'xelatex' engine/format instead of
pdflatex. What would be the best way to be able to switch engines
manually or by a variable set in the buffer? So, instead of running

pdflatex  "\nonstopmode\input{simple.tex}"

I'd like AUCTeX to issue the command

xelatex  "\nonstopmode\input{simple.tex}"

or sth. similar.

I'm using latest cvs AUCTeX and Emacs.

Patrick