diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index a61026601..a7ad9d257 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ GAJIM_AP	= 0 # do we build Autopackage?
 MODULES		= src src/common po
 PREFIX		= /usr/local
 DESTDIR		= 
+OPTFLAGS	= 
+export OPTFLAGS
 LIBDIR		= /lib
 export LIBDIR
 MANDIR		= $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/man
diff --git a/src/Makefile b/src/Makefile
index 18d124b05..4def53941 100644
--- a/src/Makefile
+++ b/src/Makefile
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ trayicon.so: trayicon.o eggtrayicon.o trayiconmodule.o
 	$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -shared $^ -o $@
 
 gtkspell.so:
-	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) `pkg-config --libs --cflags gtkspell-2.0` -shared gtkspellmodule.c $^ -o $@
+	$(CC) $(OPTFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) `pkg-config --libs --cflags gtkspell-2.0` -shared gtkspellmodule.c $^ -o $@
 
 # The path to the GTK+ python types
 DEFS=`pkg-config --variable=defsdir pygtk-2.0`
diff --git a/src/common/Makefile b/src/common/Makefile
index 7c714119a..c527d9b03 100644
--- a/src/common/Makefile
+++ b/src/common/Makefile
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ LDFLAGS = `pkg-config --libs gtk+-2.0 pygtk-2.0`
 all: idle.so
 
 idle.so:
-	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -shared idle.c $^ -o $@ -L/usr/X11R6$(LIBDIR) -lX11 -lXss -lXext
+	$(CC) $(OPTFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -shared idle.c $^ -o $@ -L/usr/X11R6$(LIBDIR) -lX11 -lXss -lXext
 
 clean:
 	rm -f *.so