diff --git a/authconfig.spec b/authconfig.spec
index cc77a0c..0ed2acb 100644
--- a/authconfig.spec
+++ b/authconfig.spec
@@ -11,7 +11,10 @@ BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-root
 Source: %{name}-%{version}.tar.bz2
 Requires: rhpl, newt, pam >= 0.99.6.2, usermode
 %define pythonver %(%{__python} -c "import sys; print sys.version[:3]")
-Requires: python >= %{?pythonver}%{!?pythonver:2.3}
+%if ! %{pythonver}
+%define pythonver 2.3
+%endif
+Requires: python >= %{pythonver}
 Conflicts: pam_krb5 < 1.49, samba-common < 3.0, samba-client < 3.0
 BuildRequires: glib2-devel, python, python-devel
 BuildRequires: desktop-file-utils, intltool, gettext, perl-XML-Parser