diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a44dbf4..55bd768 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -64,9 +64,11 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile \
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS(iconv.h,, [AC_MSG_ERROR([cannot find iconv.h, bailing out])])
 # on some systems "iconv()" lives in libc. On others it lives in libiconv
 #  on older systems "libiconv()" lives in libiconv
+SAVED_LIBS="${LIBS}"
 AC_SEARCH_LIBS(iconv,iconv,,
 	AC_SEARCH_LIBS(libiconv,iconv,,AC_MSG_ERROR(['libiconv' is required but it doesn't seem to be installed on this system.]),))
 AC_SEARCH_LIBS(locale_charset,charset,,
 	AC_SEARCH_LIBS(nl_langinfo,c,,AC_MSG_ERROR(['libcharset' is required but it doesn't seem to be installed on this system.]),))
+AC_SUBST(ICONV_LIBS, "${LIBS%${SAVED_LIBS}}")
 
 AC_OUTPUT

diff --git a/freexl.pc.in b/freexl.pc.in
index 5813e68..8fc671d 100644
--- a/freexl.pc.in
+++ b/freexl.pc.in
@@ -10,3 +10,4 @@ Description: a simple library extracting data from .xls (Excel BIFF) files
 Version: @VERSION@
 Libs: -L${libdir} -lfreexl -lm
 Cflags: -I${includedir} 
+Libs.private: @ICONV_LIBS@