--- a/configure.in	Mon Jul 14 00:09:51 2008 +0000
+++ b/configure.in	Fri Jul 18 11:20:54 2008 +0000
@@ -256,6 +256,10 @@
 ALL_LINGUAS="de es it pt_BR"
 AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT
 
+if test "x$MSGFMT" = "x"; then
+  AC_MSG_FAILURE( [gettext and/or libintl.h not found, but is required] )
+fi
+
 AC_OUTPUT([
 Makefile
 src/Makefile