diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index c112e88..f59b626 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -61,6 +61,10 @@ porting:
 	compilation does not fail on Cygwin (thanks to Peter Wagemans for
 	reporting this problem)
 
+	build failed on RHEL6 due to presence of fips.h; configure now checks
+	for fipsld too. Thanks to Andreas Gruenbacher for reporting this
+	problem
+
 ####################### V 1.7.1.3:
 
 security:
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 65b1597..8f86cd5 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -525,7 +525,9 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE(fips, [  --disable-fips          disable OpenSSL FIPS support],
 
 if test -n "$WITH_FIPS"; then
   if test -n "$WITH_OPENSSL"; then
-    if test "$sc_cv_have_openssl_ssl_h" != "yes" -o "$sc_cv_have_libssl" != "yes"; then
+    AC_CHECK_PROG(HAVE_FIPSLD, fipsld, 1)
+    if test "$sc_cv_have_openssl_ssl_h" != "yes" -o "$sc_cv_have_libssl" != "yes" -o ! "$HAVE_FIPSLD";
+ then
       AC_MSG_WARN([not all components of OpenSSL found, disabling FIPS]);
       WITH_FIPS=
     fi