diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 8665780f0..5444cd3e6 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ UL_SET_ARCH([HPPA], [hppa*])
 
 AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
 
-AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.14.1])
+AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.18])
 AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])
 
 AS_IF([test -d "$srcdir/po"], [
diff --git a/po/Makevars b/po/Makevars
index 9938e4426..4d5629cba 100644
--- a/po/Makevars
+++ b/po/Makevars
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ top_builddir = ..
 # These options get passed to xgettext.
 XGETTEXT_OPTIONS = --keyword=_ --keyword=N_ --keyword=P_:1,2
 
+# This option gets passed to msgmerge.
+MSGMERGE_OPTIONS = --no-wrap
+
 # This is the copyright holder that gets inserted into the header of the
 # $(DOMAIN).pot file.  Set this to the copyright holder of the surrounding
 # package.  (Note that the msgstr strings, extracted from the package's