diff --git a/ant/project.xml b/ant/project.xml
index 0fe126f3..20aa6956 100644
--- a/ant/project.xml
+++ b/ant/project.xml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
   <pomVersion>3</pomVersion>
   <id>maven-ant-plugin</id>
   <name>Maven Ant Plugin</name>
-  <currentVersion>1.8.1</currentVersion>
+  <currentVersion>1.9-SNAPSHOT</currentVersion>
   <description>Generates ant build files from a maven project, so that plain ant users can build your project</description>
   <shortDescription>Generate Ant build file</shortDescription>
   <url>http://maven.apache.org/reference/plugins/ant/</url>
diff --git a/ant/src/plugin-resources/templates/build.jelly b/ant/src/plugin-resources/templates/build.jelly
index 90b4a644..c9e55e33 100644
--- a/ant/src/plugin-resources/templates/build.jelly
+++ b/ant/src/plugin-resources/templates/build.jelly
@@ -349,14 +349,26 @@
       proxyuser="${maven.proxy.username}" 
       proxypassword="${maven.proxy.password}"/>
   
-    <j:forEach var="dep" items="${pom.dependencies}">
-    <!-- note: this is a valid use of artifactDirectory -->
+    <j:forEach var="lib" items="${pom.artifacts}">
+      <maven:makeRelativePath var="relativePath" basedir="${maven.repo.local}" path="${lib.path}" separator="/"/>
+      <u:file var="checkExist" name="${maven.repo.local}/${relativePath}" />    
+      <j:choose>
+        <j:when test="${checkExist.exists()}">
+          <j:set var="dep" value="${lib.dependency}"/>
+   <!-- note: this is a valid use of artifactDirectory -->
     <get 
       src="${repo}/${dep.artifactDirectory}/${dep.type}s/${dep.artifact}"
       dest="$${libdir}/${dep.artifact}"
       usetimestamp="true"
       ignoreerrors="true"
-    /></j:forEach>
+    />
+        </j:when>
+        <j:otherwise>
+          <maven:makeRelativePath var="relativePath" basedir="${basedir}" path="${lib.path}" separator="/"/>  
+    <copy todir="$${libdir}" file="${relativePath}"/>
+        </j:otherwise>
+      </j:choose>      
+ </j:forEach>
   </target>
 
   <!-- ================================================================== -->
diff --git a/ant/src/plugin-test/lib/activation-1.0.2.jar b/ant/src/plugin-test/lib/activation-1.0.2.jar
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..db4b1fb5
Binary files /dev/null and b/ant/src/plugin-test/lib/activation-1.0.2.jar differ
diff --git a/ant/src/plugin-test/maven.xml b/ant/src/plugin-test/maven.xml
index 116393c5..f96a5ab8 100644
--- a/ant/src/plugin-test/maven.xml
+++ b/ant/src/plugin-test/maven.xml
@@ -47,6 +47,12 @@
     <assert:assertEquals expected="target" value="${defaulttargetdirValue}"
       msg="defaulttargetdir property is not relative"/>
 
+	<!-- check obey jar override -->
+    <x:set var="countJarsDownload" select="count($buildXml/project/target[@name = 'get-deps']/get)"/>
+    <assert:assertEquals expected="1" value="${countJarsDownload.intValue().toString()}" msg="Should only download JUnit jar"/> 
+    <x:set var="countJarsCopy" select="count($buildXml/project/target[@name = 'get-deps']/copy)"/>
+    <assert:assertEquals expected="1" value="${countJarsDownload.intValue().toString()}" msg="Should only copy the activation jar"/> 
+
     <!-- check test filesets -->
     <x:set var="testFilesetDirs" select="$buildXml/project/target[@name = 'compile-tests']/copy/fileset/@dir"/>
     <assert:assertEquals expected="src/test" value="${testFilesetDirs[0].value}"
diff --git a/ant/src/plugin-test/project.properties b/ant/src/plugin-test/project.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..eb7444aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ant/src/plugin-test/project.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+maven.jar.override=on
+maven.jar.activation = ${basedir}/lib/activation-1.0.2.jar
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ant/src/plugin-test/project.xml b/ant/src/plugin-test/project.xml
index 35f2396f..f54e8f22 100644
--- a/ant/src/plugin-test/project.xml
+++ b/ant/src/plugin-test/project.xml
@@ -53,6 +53,15 @@
   </developers>
 
   <dependencies>
+    <!-- Used in testing maven.jar.override -->
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>activation</groupId>
+      <artifactId>activation</artifactId>
+      <version>1.0.2</version>
+      <type>jar</type>
+      <properties/>
+    </dependency>  
+    
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
diff --git a/ant/xdocs/changes.xml b/ant/xdocs/changes.xml
index 8736e670..4b3117e5 100644
--- a/ant/xdocs/changes.xml
+++ b/ant/xdocs/changes.xml
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@
     <author email="dion@multitask.com.au">dIon Gillard</author>
   </properties>
   <body>
+    
+    <release version="1.9" date="">
+      <action dev="epugh" type="add" issue="MPANT-7">Obey jar override and not attempt to download relative jars.</action>
+    </release>    
     <release version="1.8.1" date="2004-08-20">
       <action dev="carlos" type="fix" issue="MPANT-16">Use relative paths in test resources filesets.</action>
     </release>