diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index acdd120..fd8497c 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -15,9 +15,8 @@ AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([libltdl/config])
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wall -Werror foreign])
 
 AM_PROG_LIBTOOL
-#fix for automake 1.12
-m4_pattern_allow([AM_PROG_AR])
-AM_PROG_AR
+# fix for automake 1.11 & 1.12
+m4_ifdef([AM_PROG_AR], [AM_PROG_AR]) 
 
 LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -version-info 0:8:0"