diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 608765b61..509de590e 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -331,6 +331,15 @@ if (test "${have_libnl2}" = "yes"); then
 	have_libnl="yes"
 fi
 
+PKG_CHECK_MODULES(LIBNL3, libnl-3.0, [have_libnl2=yes], [have_libnl2=no])
+if (test "${have_libnl2}" = "yes"); then
+	AC_DEFINE(HAVE_LIBNL3, 1, [Define if you require specific libnl-3 support])
+	LIBNL_CFLAGS="$LIBNL3_CFLAGS"
+	LIBNL_LIBS="$LIBNL3_LIBS"
+	libnl_version="3"
+	have_libnl="yes"
+fi
+
 if (test "${have_libnl}" = "no"); then
 	AC_MSG_ERROR([libnl development header are required])
 fi
diff --git a/src/nm-netlink-compat.h b/src/nm-netlink-compat.h
index 6101b307a..867c9f4ee 100644
--- a/src/nm-netlink-compat.h
+++ b/src/nm-netlink-compat.h
@@ -51,6 +51,13 @@ int rtnl_route_get_dst_len(struct rtnl_route *);
 struct nl_addr * rtnl_route_get_gateway(struct rtnl_route *);
 #endif
 
+/* libnl-2 API compatibility for libnl-3 */
+#ifdef HAVE_LIBNL3
+static inline int __rtnl_link_alloc_cache(struct nl_sock *h, struct nl_cache **cache) {
+       return rtnl_link_alloc_cache (h, AF_UNSPEC, cache);
+}
+#define rtnl_link_alloc_cache __rtnl_link_alloc_cache
+#endif
 
 /* libnl-1.0 compat functions */
 #ifdef HAVE_LIBNL1