diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 572f476..523104b 100755
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -502,10 +502,7 @@ AC_SUBST(PERL)
 INTLTOOL_PERL=$PERL
 AC_SUBST(INTLTOOL_PERL)
 
-# ********** check for pkg-config ***********
-dnl if a minimum version required, specify as argument
-dnl PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG([0.9.0])
-PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG()
+AC_PATH_PROG(PKG_CONFIG, pkg-config)
 
 if test ! -x "$PKG_CONFIG" -a "z`uname -s`" != "zDarwin"; then
     AC_MSG_ERROR([
@@ -514,6 +511,11 @@ if test ! -x "$PKG_CONFIG" -a "z`uname -s`" != "zDarwin"; then
 *** <http://www.freedesktop.org/software/pkgconfig/>.])
 fi
 
+# ********** check for pkg-config ***********
+dnl if a minimum version required, specify as argument
+dnl PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG([0.9.0])
+PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG()
+
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES( MINIMUM_REQS,
     [ libxml-2.0 fontconfig >= 1.0.1 ],
     have_common=true, have_common=false )