diff -aurN dbus-glib-0.78.orig/configure.ac dbus-glib-0.78/configure.ac
--- dbus-glib-0.78.orig/configure.ac	2008-12-06 12:28:39.000000000 +0100
+++ dbus-glib-0.78/configure.ac	2008-12-06 12:50:23.000000000 +0100
@@ -628,20 +628,8 @@
 ])
 fi
 
-#### Sort out XML library
-
-# see what we have
-AC_CHECK_LIB(expat, XML_ParserCreate_MM,
-             [ AC_CHECK_HEADERS(expat.h, have_expat=true, have_expat=false) ],
-             have_expat=false)
-
-if ! $have_expat ; then
-  AC_MSG_ERROR([expat library not found, check config.log for failed attempts])
-fi
-
-XML_LIBS=-lexpat
-XML_CFLAGS=
-
+# expat check
+AM_WITH_EXPAT
 
 #### Set up final flags
 DBUS_CLIENT_CFLAGS=
@@ -649,8 +637,8 @@
 AC_SUBST(DBUS_CLIENT_CFLAGS)
 AC_SUBST(DBUS_CLIENT_LIBS)
 
-DBUS_BUS_CFLAGS=$XML_CFLAGS
-DBUS_BUS_LIBS="$XML_LIBS $SELINUX_LIBS $INTLLIBS"
+DBUS_BUS_CFLAGS=$EXPAT_CFLAGS
+DBUS_BUS_LIBS="$EXPAT_LIBS $SELINUX_LIBS $INTLLIBS"
 AC_SUBST(DBUS_BUS_CFLAGS)
 AC_SUBST(DBUS_BUS_LIBS)
 
@@ -700,8 +688,8 @@
 AC_SUBST(DBUS_GLIB_LIBS)
 AC_SUBST(DBUS_GLIB_THREADS_LIBS)
 
-DBUS_GLIB_TOOL_CFLAGS=$XML_CFLAGS
-DBUS_GLIB_TOOL_LIBS="$XML_LIBS $INTLLIBS"
+DBUS_GLIB_TOOL_CFLAGS=$EXPAT_CFLAGS
+DBUS_GLIB_TOOL_LIBS="$EXPAT_LIBS $INTLLIBS"
 AC_SUBST(DBUS_GLIB_TOOL_CFLAGS)
 AC_SUBST(DBUS_GLIB_TOOL_LIBS)
 
@@ -881,7 +869,6 @@
         Building Gtk-doc docs:    ${enable_gtk_doc}
         Bash Completion:          ${enable_bash_completion}
         Gettext libs (empty OK):  ${INTLLIBS}
-        Using XML parser:         ${with_xml}
         'make check' socket dir:  ${TEST_SOCKET_DIR}
 "
 
diff -aurN dbus-glib-0.78.orig/dbus/Makefile.am dbus-glib-0.78/dbus/Makefile.am
--- dbus-glib-0.78.orig/dbus/Makefile.am	2008-12-06 12:28:39.000000000 +0100
+++ dbus-glib-0.78/dbus/Makefile.am	2008-12-06 12:56:00.000000000 +0100
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@
 
 libdbus_glibdir = $(includedir)/dbus-1.0/dbus
 
-libdbus_glib_1_la_LIBADD= $(DBUS_LIBS) $(DBUS_GLIB_LIBS)
+libdbus_glib_1_la_LIBADD= $(DBUS_LIBS) $(DBUS_GLIB_LIBS) $(EXPAT_LIBS)
 ## don't export symbols that start with "_" (we use this 
 ## convention for internal symbols)
 libdbus_glib_1_la_LDFLAGS= -export-symbols-regex "^[^_].*" -version-info $(LT_CURRENT):$(LT_REVISION):$(LT_AGE) -no-undefined
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@
 	dbus-glib-tool.h			\
 	dbus-glib-tool.c
 
-dbus_binding_tool_LDADD= libdbus-gtool.la libdbus-glib-1.la $(DBUS_LIBS) $(DBUS_GLIB_LIBS) -lexpat
+dbus_binding_tool_LDADD= libdbus-gtool.la libdbus-glib-1.la $(DBUS_LIBS) $(DBUS_GLIB_LIBS) $(EXPAT_LIBS)
 
 ## we just rebuilt these manually and check them into cvs; easier than
 ## convincing automake/make to do this properly
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@
 
 dbus_bash_completion_helper_SOURCES =                 	\
 	dbus-bash-completion-helper.c
-dbus_bash_completion_helper_LDADD=$(DBUS_LIBS) $(DBUS_GLIB_LIBS) -lexpat libdbus-gtool.la libdbus-glib-1.la
+dbus_bash_completion_helper_LDADD=$(DBUS_LIBS) $(DBUS_GLIB_LIBS) $(EXPAT_LIBS) libdbus-gtool.la libdbus-glib-1.la
 
 
 EXTRA_DIST=dbus-gmarshal.list make-dbus-glib-error-switch.sh make-dbus-glib-error-enum.sh dbus-bash-completion.sh.in
diff -aurN dbus-glib-0.78.orig/m4/Makefile.am dbus-glib-0.78/m4/Makefile.am
--- dbus-glib-0.78.orig/m4/Makefile.am	2008-12-06 12:28:39.000000000 +0100
+++ dbus-glib-0.78/m4/Makefile.am	2008-12-06 12:51:11.000000000 +0100
@@ -1 +1 @@
-EXTRA_DIST = gtk-doc.m4
+EXTRA_DIST = expat.m4 gtk-doc.m4
diff -aurN dbus-glib-0.78.orig/m4/expat.m4 dbus-glib-0.78/m4/expat.m4
--- dbus-glib-0.78.orig/m4/expat.m4	1970-01-01 01:00:00.000000000 +0100
+++ dbus-glib-0.78/m4/expat.m4	2008-12-06 13:05:04.000000000 +0100
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+dnl Check if --with-expat[=PREFIX] is specified and
+dnl Expat >= 1.95.0 is installed in the system.
+dnl If yes, substitute EXPAT_CFLAGS, EXPAT_LIBS with regard to
+dnl the specified PREFIX and set with_expat to PREFIX, or 'yes' if PREFIX
+dnl has not been specified. Also HAVE_LIBEXPAT, HAVE_EXPAT_H are defined.
+dnl If --with-expat has not been specified, set with_expat to 'no'.
+dnl In addition, an Automake conditional EXPAT_INSTALLED is set accordingly.
+dnl This is necessary to adapt a whole lot of packages that have expat
+dnl bundled as a static library.
+AC_DEFUN([AM_WITH_EXPAT],
+[ AC_ARG_WITH(expat,
+	      [  --with-expat=PREFIX     Use system Expat library],
+	      , with_expat=yes)
+
+  AM_CONDITIONAL(EXPAT_INSTALLED, test $with_expat != no)
+
+  EXPAT_CFLAGS=
+  EXPAT_LIBS=
+  if test $with_expat != no; then
+	if test $with_expat != yes; then
+		EXPAT_CFLAGS="-I$with_expat/include"
+		EXPAT_LIBS="-L$with_expat/lib"
+	fi
+	AC_CHECK_LIB(expat, XML_ParserCreate,
+		     [ EXPAT_LIBS="$EXPAT_LIBS -lexpat"
+		       expat_found=yes ],
+		     [ expat_found=no ],
+		     "$EXPAT_LIBS")
+	if test $expat_found = no; then
+		AC_MSG_ERROR([Could not find the Expat library])
+	fi
+	expat_save_CFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
+	CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $EXPAT_CFLAGS"
+	AC_CHECK_HEADERS(expat.h, , expat_found=no)
+	if test $expat_found = no; then
+		AC_MSG_ERROR([Could not find expat.h])
+	fi
+	CFLAGS="$expat_save_CFLAGS"
+  fi
+
+  AC_SUBST(EXPAT_CFLAGS)
+  AC_SUBST(EXPAT_LIBS)
+])