diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index cc29dd3..0bd4f5f 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ AC_PATH_PROG([GLIB_MKENUMS],[glib-mkenums])
 
 # Requirements
 GLIB_REQS=2.16.3
+GIO_REQS=2.17.3
 DBUS_REQS=0.61
 
 # Before making a release, the PLPARSER_LT_VERSION string should be modified.
@@ -55,8 +56,46 @@ AC_SUBST(TOTEM_PL_PARSER_VERSION_MAJOR)
 AC_SUBST(TOTEM_PL_PARSER_VERSION_MINOR)
 AC_SUBST(TOTEM_PL_PARSER_VERSION_MICRO)
 
+pkg_modules="glib-2.0 >= $GLIB_REQS gtk+-2.0 libxml-2.0 gthread-2.0 gio-2.0 >= $GIO_REQS"
+
+##################################
+# Checking libcamel dependency
+##################################
+camel_message=""
+
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(camel,
+	      AS_HELP_STRING([--disable-camel],
+			     [Disable libcamel (This affect the parse dates functionality).]),
+			     [enable_camel=no],
+			     [enable_camel=yes])
+
+if test "x$enable_camel" = "xyes" ; then
+   PKG_CHECK_MODULES(LIBCAMEL,  
+		     camel-1.2,
+                     [have_camel=yes], 
+                     [have_camel=no])
+
+   if test "x$have_camel" = "xyes" ; then
+      AC_SUBST(LIBCAMEL, camel-1.2)
+      AC_SUBST(USELIBCAMEL, yes)
+      AC_DEFINE(HAVE_CAMEL, 1, [Camel available in the system])
+      pkg_modules="$pkg_modules camel-1.2"
+   else
+      AC_MSG_ERROR([libcamel is not available in the system. Check --disable-camel option.])
+   fi
+else
+   AC_SUBST(USELIBCAMEL, no)
+   camel_message="
+ *********************************************
+ Compiling totem-pl-parser without libcamel.
+ This will break the podcast support.
+ *********************************************"
+fi
+
 dnl Check for packages for building libtotem-plparser.la
-PKG_CHECK_MODULES(TOTEM_PLPARSER, [glib-2.0 >= $GLIB_REQS gtk+-2.0 libxml-2.0 camel-1.2 gio-2.0 >= 2.17.5])
+PKG_CHECK_MODULES(TOTEM_PLPARSER, [$pkg_modules])
+AC_SUBST(TOTEM_PLPARSER_CFLAGS)
+AC_SUBST(TOTEM_PLPARSER_LIBS)
 
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES([TOTEM_PLPARSER_MINI], [gio-2.0])
 
@@ -83,7 +122,7 @@ AC_SUBST([AM_LDFLAGS])
 
 GTK_DOC_CHECK(1.0)
 
-AC_OUTPUT([
+AC_CONFIG_FILES([
 Makefile
 totem-plparser.pc
 totem-plparser-uninstalled.pc
@@ -99,3 +138,9 @@ docs/reference/Makefile
 docs/reference/version.xml
 ])
 
+
+AC_OUTPUT
+
+echo "
+$camel_message
+"
diff --git a/plparse/totem-pl-parser.c b/plparse/totem-pl-parser.c
index 56f636b..eac7b5a 100644
--- a/plparse/totem-pl-parser.c
+++ b/plparse/totem-pl-parser.c
@@ -104,7 +104,10 @@
 #ifndef TOTEM_PL_PARSER_MINI
 #include <gobject/gvaluecollector.h>
 #include <gtk/gtk.h>
+
+#ifdef HAVE_CAMEL
 #include <camel/camel-mime-utils.h>
+#endif
 
 #include "totem-pl-parser.h"
 #include "totemplparser-marshal.h"
@@ -1756,6 +1759,7 @@ totem_pl_parser_parse_duration (const char *duration, gboolean debug)
 	return -1;
 }
 
+
 /**
  * totem_pl_parser_parse_date:
  * @date_str: the date string to parse
@@ -1769,6 +1773,7 @@ totem_pl_parser_parse_duration (const char *duration, gboolean debug)
 guint64
 totem_pl_parser_parse_date (const char *date_str, gboolean debug)
 {
+#ifdef HAVE_CAMEL
 	GTimeVal val;
 
 	g_return_val_if_fail (date_str != NULL, -1);
@@ -1780,11 +1785,12 @@ totem_pl_parser_parse_date (const char *date_str, gboolean debug)
 		return val.tv_sec;
 	}
 	D(g_message ("Failed to parse duration '%s' using the ISO8601 parser", date_str));
-
 	/* Fall back to RFC 2822 date parsing */
 	return camel_header_decode_date (date_str, NULL);
+#else
+        g_warning ("totem_pl_parser_parse_date called but totem-pl-parser built without libcamel support");
+#endif /* HAVE_CAMEL */
 }
-
 #endif /* !TOTEM_PL_PARSER_MINI */
 
 static char *
diff --git a/totem-plparser.pc.in b/totem-plparser.pc.in
index e4a98a2..7b186ad 100644
--- a/totem-plparser.pc.in
+++ b/totem-plparser.pc.in
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ Name: totem-plparser
 Description: Totem Playlist Parser library
 Version: @VERSION@
 Requires: gtk+-2.0
-Requires.private: libxml-2.0 camel-1.2
+Requires.private: libxml-2.0 @LIBCAMEL@
 Libs: -L${libdir} -ltotem-plparser
 Cflags: -I${includedir}/totem-pl-parser/1/plparser
+uselibcamel=@USELIBCAMEL@
