diff --git a/js/angular/directive/item.js b/js/angular/directive/item.js
index 5e25f278d07..1e690010c8a 100644
--- a/js/angular/directive/item.js
+++ b/js/angular/directive/item.js
@@ -1,7 +1,3 @@
-var ITEM_TPL_CONTENT_ANCHOR =
-  '<a class="item-content" ng-href="{{$href()}}" target="{{$target()}}"></a>';
-var ITEM_TPL_CONTENT =
-  '<div class="item-content"></div>';
 /**
 * @ngdoc directive
 * @name ionItem
@@ -45,11 +41,20 @@ IonicModule
         /ion-(delete|option|reorder)-button/i.test($element.html());
 
       if (isComplexItem) {
-        var innerElement = jqLite(isAnchor ? ITEM_TPL_CONTENT_ANCHOR : ITEM_TPL_CONTENT);
+        var innerElement = jqLite(isAnchor ? '<a></a>' : '<div></div>');
+        innerElement.addClass('item-content');
+
+        if (isDefined($attrs.href) || isDefined($attrs.ngHref)) {
+          innerElement.attr('ng-href', '{{$href()}}')
+          if (isDefined($attrs.target)) {
+            innerElement.attr('target', '{{$target()}}')
+          }
+        }
+
         innerElement.append($element.contents());
 
-        $element.append(innerElement);
-        $element.addClass('item item-complex');
+        $element.addClass('item item-complex')
+                .append(innerElement);
       } else {
         $element.addClass('item');
       }
@@ -59,7 +64,7 @@ IonicModule
           return $attrs.href || $attrs.ngHref;
         };
         $scope.$target = function() {
-          return $attrs.target || '_self';
+          return $attrs.target;
         };
 
         var content = $element[0].querySelector('.item-content');
diff --git a/test/unit/angular/directive/item.unit.js b/test/unit/angular/directive/item.unit.js
index 7179f1f829a..40b88cfa4f0 100644
--- a/test/unit/angular/directive/item.unit.js
+++ b/test/unit/angular/directive/item.unit.js
@@ -34,9 +34,9 @@ describe('ionItem directive', function() {
       expect(el.children().attr('href')).toBe('something/44');
     });
   });
-  it('complex item should have target self by default', function() {
+  it('complex item should not have target by default', function() {
     var el = setup('href="foo"');
-    expect(el.find('a').attr('target')).toBe('_self');
+    expect(el.find('a').attr('target')).toBeUndefined();
   });
   it('complex item should have target if specified', function() {
     var el = setup('href="foo" target="bar"');