Saving to XML

Is it considered a local file if I have an xml document with my fla files? I want to write, save, and load an xml file when an adobe AIR app starts but am confused about the procedure.

Im guessing…

Start a file reference
Start a URLLoader for XML
Manipulate data from within an XML var
Write using File stream?

Does that sound right? Will that xml file always be connected to the fla and app when its published? I don’t want to have a local file that gets erased every time the app get updated or cookies get deleted.

Thanks Josh