diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 88ea40e89f..4b386eaba1 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+Wed Jan 14 16:16:19 2009  Yukihiro Matsumoto  <matz@ruby-lang.org>
+
+	* ext/curses/extconf.rb: check ncursesw earlier than ncurses to
+	  support UTF-8 strings.   non UTF-8 strings should be converted
+	  explicitly.   [ruby-core:21094]
+
 Wed Jan 14 14:42:30 2009  TAKANO Mitsuhiro (takano32)  <tak@no32.tk>
 
 	* cont.c: fix prototype declare of register_stack_extend
diff --git a/ext/curses/extconf.rb b/ext/curses/extconf.rb
index 46dc760a31..e3bcb1f651 100644
--- a/ext/curses/extconf.rb
+++ b/ext/curses/extconf.rb
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ headers = []
 
 have_library("mytinfo", "tgetent") if /bow/ =~ RUBY_PLATFORM
 have_library("tinfo", "tgetent") or have_library("termcap", "tgetent")
-if have_header(*curses=%w"ncurses.h") and have_library("ncurses", "initscr")
+if have_header(*curses=%w"ncurses.h") and (have_library("ncursesw", "initscr") or have_library("ncurses", "initscr"))
   make=true
 elsif have_header(*curses=%w"ncurses/curses.h") and have_library("ncurses", "initscr")
   make=true