Measurement of the B ---> X(s) l+ l- branching fraction with a sum over exclusive modes

We measure the branching fraction for the flavor-changing neutral-current process B -> Xs l+ l- with a sample of 89 x 10^6 Y(4S) ->BBbar events recorded with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- storage ring. The final state is reconstructed from e+e- or mu+mu- pairs and a hadronic system Xs consisting of one K+/- or KS^0 and up to two pions, with at most one pi0. We observe a signal of 40 +/- 10(stat) +/- 2(syst) events and extract the inclusive branching fraction Br(B -> Xs l+l-) = (5.6 +/- 1.5(stat) +/- 0.6(exp syst) +/- 1.1(model syst)) x 10^6 for m_(l+l-) > 0.2 GeV/c2.