diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 469403364..8c5230532 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@
 
                                   Changelog
 
+Daniel Stenberg (13 Mar 2009)
+- Use libssh2_version() to present the libssh2 version in case the libssh2
+  library is found to support it.
+
 Yang Tse (12 Mar 2009)
 - Added missing Curl_read() return code checking in TELNET transfers.
 
diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES b/RELEASE-NOTES
index f8e97a528..6323e36c2 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ This release includes the following changes:
 
  o libcurl now closes all dead connections whenever you attempt to open a new
    connection
+ o libssh2's version number can now be figured out run-time instead of using
+   the build-time fixed number
 
 This release includes the following bugfixes:
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index af652655a..d9ff3de8c 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1494,6 +1494,9 @@ if test X"$OPT_LIBSSH2" != Xno; then
        dnl linker doesn't search through, we need to add it to LD_LIBRARY_PATH
        dnl to prevent further configure tests to fail due to this
 
+       dnl libssh2_version is a post 1.0 addition
+       AC_CHECK_FUNCS( libssh2_version )
+
        LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$LIB_LIBSSH2"
        export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
        AC_MSG_NOTICE([Added $LIB_LIBSSH2 to LD_LIBRARY_PATH])
diff --git a/lib/version.c b/lib/version.c
index 2e8f1b410..61a3b3287 100644
--- a/lib/version.c
+++ b/lib/version.c
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  *                            | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___
  *                             \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
  *
- * Copyright (C) 1998 - 2007, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
+ * Copyright (C) 1998 - 2009, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
  *
  * This software is licensed as described in the file COPYING, which
  * you should have received as part of this distribution. The terms
@@ -49,6 +49,13 @@
 #include <libssh2.h>
 #endif
 
+#ifdef HAVE_LIBSSH2_VERSION
+/* get it run-time if possible */
+#define CURL_LIBSSH2_VERSION libssh2_version(0)
+#else
+/* use build-time if run-time not possible */
+#define CURL_LIBSSH2_VERSION LIBSSH2_VERSION
+#endif
 
 char *curl_version(void)
 {
@@ -101,7 +108,7 @@ char *curl_version(void)
   ptr += len;
 #endif
 #ifdef USE_LIBSSH2
-  len = snprintf(ptr, left, " libssh2/%s", LIBSSH2_VERSION);
+  len = snprintf(ptr, left, " libssh2/%s", CURL_LIBSSH2_VERSION);
   left -= len;
   ptr += len;
 #endif