diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 769c86cad..ed5c4a739 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2004-10-26  Werner Koch  <wk@g10code.com>
+
+	* configure.ac: New option --disable-gnupg-iconv, define
+	USE_GNUPG_ICONV.
+	
 2004-10-21  David Shaw  <dshaw@jabberwocky.com>
 
 	* acinclude.m4: aclocal 1.9 wants quoting on AC_DEFUN arguments.
diff --git a/README b/README
index 54357c3bf..0725305b8 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -605,6 +605,17 @@
                     This prevents access to certain files and won't
                     allow import or export of secret keys.
 
+     --disable-gnupg-iconv
+                    If iconv is available it is used to convert
+                    between utf-8 and the system character set.  This
+                    is in general the preferable solution.  However
+                    the code is new and under some cirumstances it may
+                    give different output than with the limited old
+                    support.  This option allows to explicity disable
+                    the use of iconv.  Note, that iconv is also
+                    disabled if getext has been disabled.
+                    
+
 
     Installation Problems
     ---------------------
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 8276a98c8..35992d231 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -124,6 +124,13 @@ AC_ARG_WITH(readline,
 case "$readline_support" in yes);; no);; *)readline_support=yes;; esac
 AC_MSG_RESULT($readline_support)
 
+AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether the new iconv based code is requested])
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(gnupg-iconv,
+              AC_HELP_STRING([--disable-gnupg-iconv],
+                             [disable the new iconv code]),
+              gnupg_use_iconv=$enableval, gnupg_use_iconv=yes)
+AC_MSG_RESULT($gnupg_use_iconv)
+
 
 dnl See if we are disabling any algorithms or features for a smaller
 dnl binary
@@ -732,12 +739,21 @@ if test "$selinux_support" = yes ; then
   AC_DEFINE(ENABLE_SELINUX_HACKS,1,[Define to enable SELinux support])
 fi
 
+if test "$gnupg_use_iconv" = yes ; then
+  AC_DEFINE(USE_GNUPG_ICONV,1,[Define to use the new iconv based code])
+fi
+
+
 AM_CONDITIONAL(ENABLE_CARD_SUPPORT, test "$card_support" = yes)
 
 dnl Checks for header files.
 AC_HEADER_STDC
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS(unistd.h langinfo.h termio.h locale.h getopt.h)
 
+# Note that we do not check for iconv here because this is done anyway
+# by the gettext checks and thus it allows us to disable the use of
+# iconv by using --disable-nls.
+
 
 dnl Checks for typedefs, structures, and compiler characteristics.
 AC_C_CONST