diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index ecaa403b..21ad1e7d 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -148,6 +148,9 @@ AC_ARG_WITH(push,
 [  --with-push             add the PUSH parser interfaces (on)])
 AC_ARG_WITH(python,
 [  --with-python[[=DIR]]     build Python bindings if found])
+AC_ARG_WITH(python_install_dir,
+[  --with-python-install-dir=DIR
+                          install Python bindings in DIR])
 AC_ARG_WITH(reader,
 [  --with-reader           add the xmlReader parsing interface (on)])
 AC_ARG_WITH(readline,
@@ -866,6 +869,10 @@ if test "$with_python" != "no" ; then
 	    fi
 	fi
     fi
+    if test "$with_python_install_dir" != ""
+    then
+	PYTHON_SITE_PACKAGES="$with_python_install_dir"
+    fi
     if test "$PYTHON_VERSION" != "" -a "$PYTHON_SITE_PACKAGES" = ""
     then
 	if test -d $libdir/python$PYTHON_VERSION/site-packages