diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 180ccdf43..7c6c01518 100755
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -5,6 +5,12 @@ phpMyAdmin - Changelog
 $Id$
 $Source$
 
+2003-04-11 Michal Cihar  <nijel@users.sourceforge.net>
+    * db_details_structure.php3: Get row count by SHOW TABLE STATUS, and by
+      SELECT COUNT(*) only for small (<20000 rows) tables (RFE #708533).
+    * config.inc.php3, db_details_structure.php3, libraries/common.lib.php3:
+      $cfg['MaxExactCount'] is now used instead of hardcoded 20000 for above.
+
 2003-04-10 Michal Cihar  <nijel@users.sourceforge.net>
     * pdf_schema.php3, libraries/common.lib.php3,
       libraries/display_tbl.lib.php3, libraries/get_foreign.lib.php3: Get row
diff --git a/config.inc.php3 b/config.inc.php3
index 2d78d72b6..f95cece53 100755
--- a/config.inc.php3
+++ b/config.inc.php3
@@ -412,6 +412,8 @@ $cfg['QueryWindowDefTab']   = 'sql';        // which tab to display in the query
 $cfg['QueryHistoryMax']     = 25;           // When using DB-based query history, how many entries
                                             // should be kept?
 $cfg['BrowseMIME']          = TRUE;         // Use MIME-Types (stored in column comments table) for
+$cfg['MaxExactCount']       = 20000;        // When approximate count < this, PMA will get exact count for
+                                            // table rows.
 
 /**
  * SQL Query box settings
diff --git a/db_details_structure.php3 b/db_details_structure.php3
index 1e9ecf37f..b81203b67 100644
--- a/db_details_structure.php3
+++ b/db_details_structure.php3
@@ -240,13 +240,17 @@ else if (PMA_MYSQL_INT_VERSION >= 32303) {
                 }
                 //$display_rows                   =  '&nbsp;-&nbsp;';
                 // get row count with another method
-                $local_query         = 'SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM '
-                                     . PMA_backquote($db) . '.'
-                                     . PMA_backquote($table);
-                $table_info_result   = PMA_mysql_query($local_query)
-                                     or PMA_mysqlDie('', $local_query, '', $err_url_0);
-                $row_count           = PMA_mysql_result($table_info_result, 0, 'count');
-                $sum_entries         += $row_count;
+                if ($sts_data['Rows'] < $cfg['MaxExactCount']) {
+                    $local_query         = 'SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM '
+                                         . PMA_backquote($db) . '.'
+                                         . PMA_backquote($table);
+                    $table_info_result   = PMA_mysql_query($local_query)
+                                         or PMA_mysqlDie('', $local_query, '', $err_url_0);
+                    $row_count           = PMA_mysql_result($table_info_result, 0, 'count');
+                    $sum_entries         += $row_count;
+                } else {
+                    $sum_entries         += $sts_data['Rows'];
+                }
                 $display_rows        = number_format($row_count, 0, $number_decimal_separator, $number_thousands_separator);
             }
 
diff --git a/libraries/common.lib.php3 b/libraries/common.lib.php3
index 3b0a41c5f..0c092f985 100644
--- a/libraries/common.lib.php3
+++ b/libraries/common.lib.php3
@@ -1224,13 +1224,13 @@ h1    {font-family: sans-serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold}
          */
         function PMA_countRecords($db, $table, $ret = FALSE)
         {
-            global $err_url;
+            global $err_url, $cfg;
             if (PMA_MYSQL_INT_VERSION >= 32303) {
                 $local_query  = 'SHOW TABLE STATUS LIKE \'' . PMA_sqlAddslashes($table, TRUE) . '\' FROM \'' . PMA_sqlAddslashes($table, TRUE) . '\'';
                 $result       = PMA_mysql_query($local_query) or PMA_mysqlDie('', $local_query, '', $err_url);
                 $showtable    = PMA_mysql_fetch_array($result);
                 $num     = (isset($showtable['Rows']) ? $showtable['Rows'] : 0);
-                if ($num < 20000) unset($num);
+                if ($num < $cfg['MaxExactCount']) unset($num);
                 mysql_free_result($result);
             }
             if (!isset($num)) {