diff --git a/libguestfs.spec b/libguestfs.spec
index fd93b23..3ca7091 100644
--- a/libguestfs.spec
+++ b/libguestfs.spec
@@ -452,6 +452,13 @@ fi
 #
 %configure \
 	--help || :
+
+if ! pkg-config python
+then
+	export PYTHON_LIBS="-lpython`python -c 'import distutils.sysconfig; print (distutils.sysconfig.get_python_version ());'`"
+	export PYTHON_CFLAGS="-I`python -c 'import distutils.sysconfig; print (distutils.sysconfig.get_python_inc ());'`"
+fi
+
 #sed -i '1 s@^.*@#!/bin/sh -x@' configure
 %configure \
 	--docdir=%{guestfs_docdir} \