diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 93e0d4aa1..de849ed93 100755
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -5,6 +5,12 @@ phpMyAdmin - Changelog
 $Id$
 $Source$
 
+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
+      count by SHOW TABLE STATUS, and by SELECT COUNT(*) only for small
+      (<20000 rows) tables (RFE #708533).
+
 2003-04-09 Michal Cihar  <nijel@users.sourceforge.net>
     * libraries/build_dump.lib.php3: Fixed undefined index warnings in LaTeX
       and XML dump.
diff --git a/libraries/common.lib.php3 b/libraries/common.lib.php3
index a69f480ff..3b0a41c5f 100644
--- a/libraries/common.lib.php3
+++ b/libraries/common.lib.php3
@@ -1224,9 +1224,20 @@ h1    {font-family: sans-serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold}
          */
         function PMA_countRecords($db, $table, $ret = FALSE)
         {
-            $result = PMA_mysql_query('SELECT COUNT(*) AS num FROM ' . PMA_backquote($db) . '.' . PMA_backquote($table));
-            $num    = ($result) ? PMA_mysql_result($result, 0, 'num') : 0;
-            mysql_free_result($result);
+            global $err_url;
+            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($num);
+                mysql_free_result($result);
+            }
+            if (!isset($num)) {
+                $result = PMA_mysql_query('SELECT COUNT(*) AS num FROM ' . PMA_backquote($db) . '.' . PMA_backquote($table)) or PMA_mysqlDie('', $local_query, '', $err_url);
+                $num    = ($result) ? PMA_mysql_result($result, 0, 'num') : 0;
+                mysql_free_result($result);
+            }
             if ($ret) {
                 return $num;
             } else {
diff --git a/libraries/display_tbl.lib.php3 b/libraries/display_tbl.lib.php3
index f210799ef..9deb34fa6 100644
--- a/libraries/display_tbl.lib.php3
+++ b/libraries/display_tbl.lib.php3
@@ -156,10 +156,7 @@ if (!defined('PMA_DISPLAY_TBL_LIB_INCLUDED')) {
         }
         else if (($do_display['nav_bar'] == '1' || $do_display['sort_lnk'] == '1')
                  && (!empty($db) && !empty($table))) {
-            $local_query = 'SELECT COUNT(*) AS total FROM ' . PMA_backquote($db) . '.' . PMA_backquote($table);
-            $result      = PMA_mysql_query($local_query) or PMA_mysqlDie('', $local_query, '', $err_url);
-            $the_total   = PMA_mysql_result($result, 0, 'total');
-            mysql_free_result($result);
+            $the_total   = PMA_countRecords($db, $table, TRUE);
         }
 
         // 4. If navigation bar or sorting fields names urls should be
diff --git a/libraries/get_foreign.lib.php3 b/libraries/get_foreign.lib.php3
index 53f2b0b5e..9bd083c1e 100755
--- a/libraries/get_foreign.lib.php3
+++ b/libraries/get_foreign.lib.php3
@@ -27,10 +27,7 @@
         // We could also do the SELECT anyway, with a LIMIT, and ensure that
         // the current value of the field is one of the choices.
 
-        $count_query  = 'SELECT COUNT(*) AS total FROM ' . PMA_backquote($foreign_db) . '.' . PMA_backquote($foreign_table);
-        $count_result = PMA_mysql_query($count_query) or PMA_mysqlDie('', $count_query, '', $err_url);
-        $the_total    = PMA_mysql_result($count_result, 0, 'total');
-        mysql_free_result($count_result);
+        $the_total   = PMA_countRecords($db, $table, TRUE);
 
         if ($the_total < 200) {
             // foreign_display can be FALSE if no display field defined:
diff --git a/pdf_schema.php3 b/pdf_schema.php3
index 56edf6df7..62b42a11e 100644
--- a/pdf_schema.php3
+++ b/pdf_schema.php3
@@ -1295,10 +1295,8 @@ function PMA_RT_DOC($alltables ){
              $update_time  = (isset($showtable['Update_time']) ? PMA_localisedDate(strtotime($showtable['Update_time'])) : '');
              $check_time   = (isset($showtable['Check_time']) ? PMA_localisedDate(strtotime($showtable['Check_time'])) : '');
         } else {
-             $local_query  = 'SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM ' . PMA_backquote($table);
-             $result       = PMA_mysql_query($local_query) or PMA_mysqlDie('', $local_query, '', $err_url);
              $showtable    = array();
-             $num_rows     = PMA_mysql_result($result, 0, 'count');
+             $num_rows     = PMA_countRecords($db, $table, TRUE);
              $show_comment = '';
              $create_time  = '';
              $update_time  = '';