diff --git a/tools/ChangeLog b/tools/ChangeLog
index 5fe13021b..efc78ea9e 100644
--- a/tools/ChangeLog
+++ b/tools/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2004-04-29  Marcus Brinkmann  <marcus@g10code.de>
+
+	* gpgconf-comp.c (change_options_program): Turn on utf8-strings in
+	the gpgconf specific part of the config file for the GnuPG
+	backend.
+
 2004-04-28  Werner Koch  <wk@gnupg.org>
 
 	* gpgconf-comp.c: Add --ocsp-signer for the dirmngr backend.
diff --git a/tools/gpgconf-comp.c b/tools/gpgconf-comp.c
index 338c43119..089818fd4 100644
--- a/tools/gpgconf-comp.c
+++ b/tools/gpgconf-comp.c
@@ -2075,6 +2075,11 @@ change_options_program (gc_component_t component, gc_backend_t backend,
      Now, dump the changed options (except for those we are going to
      revert to their default), and write the end marker, possibly
      followed by the rest of the original file.  */
+
+  /* We have to turn on UTF8 strings for GnuPG.  */
+  if (backend == GC_BACKEND_GPG)
+    fprintf (src_file, "utf8-strings\n");
+
   option = gc_component[component].options;
   while (option->name)
     {