diff --git a/README-XMP b/README-XMP
index 1ca7bd7d..64968324 100644
--- a/README-XMP
+++ b/README-XMP
@@ -8,7 +8,9 @@ has a new interface to access the raw XMP packet.
 
 Todo: XMP support is controlled with the ENABLE_XMP directive 
 in config/config.mk.in. This will be a configure option
-eventually.
+eventually. For now, comment the line "ENABLE_XMP = 1" either
+in config.mk.in before running ./configure or in config.mk to
+build without XMP support.
 
 Exiv2 uses the Adobe XMP toolkit (XMP SDK) to parse
 and serialize XMP packets (only the XMPCore component).
diff --git a/src/Makefile b/src/Makefile
index bb2d3fee..6fcd802a 100644
--- a/src/Makefile
+++ b/src/Makefile
@@ -91,11 +91,9 @@ CCSRC += rafimage.cpp         \
 	 tiffvisitor.cpp      \
 	 types.cpp            \
 	 value.cpp            \
-	 version.cpp
-ifdef ENABLE_XMP
-CCSRC += properties.cpp       \
+	 version.cpp          \
+         properties.cpp       \
 	 xmp.cpp
-endif
 
 # Add library C source files to this list
 ifndef HAVE_TIMEGM
@@ -121,9 +119,11 @@ BINSRC = addmoddel.cpp        \
          taglist.cpp          \
          write-test.cpp       \
          write2-test.cpp      \
-         tiffparse.cpp        \
-         xmpparse.cpp         \
+         tiffparse.cpp
+ifdef ENABLE_XMP
+BINSRC += xmpparse.cpp        \
          xmpparser-test.cpp
+endif
 
 # Main source file of the Exiv2 application
 EXIV2MAIN = exiv2.cpp
diff --git a/src/xmp.cpp b/src/xmp.cpp
index de98143c..58ab7875 100644
--- a/src/xmp.cpp
+++ b/src/xmp.cpp
@@ -365,7 +365,11 @@ namespace Exiv2 {
     bool XmpParser::initialize()
     {
         if (!initialized_) {
+#ifdef EXV_HAVE_XMP_TOOLKIT
             initialized_ = SXMPMeta::Initialize();
+#else
+            initialized_ = true;
+#endif
         }
         return initialized_;
     }
@@ -373,7 +377,9 @@ namespace Exiv2 {
     void XmpParser::terminate()
     {
         if (initialized_) {
+#ifdef EXV_HAVE_XMP_TOOLKIT
             SXMPMeta::Terminate();
+#endif
             initialized_ = false;
         }
     }
@@ -516,7 +522,7 @@ namespace Exiv2 {
         return 3;
     }} // XmpParser::decode
 #else
-    int XmpParser::decode(      XmpData&     /*xmpData*/,
+    int XmpParser::decode(      XmpData&     xmpData,
                           const std::string& xmpPacket)
     {
         xmpData.clear();
@@ -603,16 +609,16 @@ namespace Exiv2 {
         return 3;
     }} // XmpParser::decode
 #else
-    void XmpParser::encode(      std::string& xmpPacket,
-                           const XmpData&     xmpData)
+    int XmpParser::encode(      std::string& xmpPacket,
+                          const XmpData&     xmpData)
     {
         xmpPacket.clear();
         if (!xmpData.empty()) {
 #ifndef SUPPRESS_WARNINGS
             std::cerr << "Warning: XMP toolkit support not compiled in.\n";
 #endif
-        return 1;
         }
+        return 1;
     } // XmpParser::encode
 #endif // !EXV_HAVE_XMP_TOOLKIT
 
diff --git a/test/xmpparser-test.sh b/test/xmpparser-test.sh
index c2abc856..485ea45d 100755
--- a/test/xmpparser-test.sh
+++ b/test/xmpparser-test.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 #! /bin/sh
 # XMP parser test driver
 
+# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Check if xmpparser-test exists
+if [ ! -x ../../src/xmpparser-test ] ; then
+    echo "xmpparser-test not found. Assuming XMP support is not enabled."
+    exit 0
+fi
+
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Setup
 results="./tmp/xmpparser-test.out"