diff --git a/scripts/i18n.py b/scripts/i18n.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a9387ae25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/i18n.py
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+##	common/i18n.py
+##
+## Gajim Team:
+##  - Yann Le Boulanger <asterix@lagaule.org>
+##  - Vincent Hanquez <tab@snarc.org>
+##  - Nikos Kouremenos <kourem@gmail.com>
+##  - Dimitur Kirov <dkirov@gmail.com>
+##
+##	Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Gajim Team
+##
+## This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+## it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
+## by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 only.
+##
+## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+## but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+## GNU General Public License for more details.
+##
+
+APP='gajim'
+DIR='../po'
+
+import locale
+import gettext
+
+locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, '')
+_translation = None
+
+def init():
+	global _translation
+	try:
+		_translation = gettext.translation(APP, DIR)
+	except IOError:
+		_translation = gettext.NullTranslations()
+
+def _(s):
+	if s == '':
+		return s
+	assert s
+	return _translation.gettext(s)