diff --git a/src/osgPlugins/txp/Makefile b/src/osgPlugins/txp/Makefile
index 7e3574291..b604b300e 100644
--- a/src/osgPlugins/txp/Makefile
+++ b/src/osgPlugins/txp/Makefile
@@ -32,6 +32,14 @@ TARGET_LOADER_FILES = osgPlugins/$(TARGET_BASENAME).$(DL_EXT)
 LIBS    =  $(GL_LIBS) -losg -losgDB
 MACOSXLIBS = -L$(OSGHOME)/lib -losg -losgDB -lstdc++
 
+# override the compiler optimization, since GNU C++ 2.96 has problems with
+# areas of the TXP loader code when compiling at -O2 optimization level.
+# -O works fine?! Guess this is a tempory bug, or may be something more
+# subtle in the TXP code itself, but my investigations havn't revealled
+# anything to fix, right now it looks like just a compiler bug.
+# Robert Osfield, Feb 2002.
+CFLAGS    += -O
+
 C++FLAGS += -I. -I$(OSGHOME)/include
 LDFLAGS += -L$(OSGHOME)/lib