diff --git a/osc/commandline.py b/osc/commandline.py
index ad69a7da..f6a8b52d 100755
--- a/osc/commandline.py
+++ b/osc/commandline.py
@@ -881,7 +881,10 @@ Please submit there instead, or use --nodevelproject to force direct submission.
             raise oscerr.WrongArgs('Missing argument.')
 
         for pkg in pkgs:
-            delete_package(conf.config['apiurl'], args[0], pkg)
+            # careful: if pkg is an empty string, the package delete request results
+            # into a project delete request - which works recursively...
+            if pkg:
+                delete_package(conf.config['apiurl'], args[0], pkg)
 
 
     @cmdln.option('-f', '--force', action='store_true',
diff --git a/osc/core.py b/osc/core.py
index c8968ad0..d78e3395 100755
--- a/osc/core.py
+++ b/osc/core.py
@@ -1300,9 +1300,13 @@ def is_package_dir(d):
 def slash_split(l):
     """Split command line arguments like 'foo/bar' into 'foo' 'bar'.
     This is handy to allow copy/paste a project/package combination in this form.
+
+    Trailing slashes are removed before the split, because the split would 
+    otherwise give an additional empty string.
     """
     r = []
     for i in l:
+        i = i.rstrip('/')
         r += i.split('/')
     return r