looking for a webrequest class

In my controller, based on user post, i want to make a call to an external provider site to get process some data and get results.

example: say i want to invoke google map api at the following url

http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/output?

This call returns an xml object with data, which I would like to use.

Only using google as an example here, but concept is the same.

How would I make the call in spring mvc controller or in the business[service] layer?