diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index fd76f828..607135f7 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ AC_ARG_WITH(versioned,
   versioned="$withval", versioned="yes")
 if test "$versioned" = "yes"; then
   # it seems that GNU ld versions since 2.10 are not broken
-  xres=`grep '^VERSION=' $ac_aux_dir/libtool | cut -d = -f 2`
+  xres=`grep '^VERSION=' $ac_aux_dir/libtool | cut -d = -f 2 | cut -d \" -f 2`
   major=`echo $xres | cut -d . -f 1`
   minor=`echo $xres | cut -d . -f 2`
   pass=0