--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -844,7 +844,7 @@ if test "$with_python" != "no" ; then
     fi
     if test "$PYTHON" != ""
     then
-        PYTHON_VERSION=`$PYTHON -c "from distutils import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_python_version())"`
+        PYTHON_VERSION=`$PYTHON -c "import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_config_var('LDVERSION') or sysconfig.get_config_var('py_version_short'))"`
 	PYTHON_INCLUDES=`$PYTHON -c "from distutils import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_python_inc())"`
 # does not work as it produce a /usr/lib/python path instead of/usr/lib64/python
 #