diff --git a/announcement/plugin.jelly b/announcement/plugin.jelly
index 5e569544..9341cf8a 100644
--- a/announcement/plugin.jelly
+++ b/announcement/plugin.jelly
@@ -80,7 +80,21 @@
     </jsl:stylesheet>
     
     <j:if test="${versionFound == null}">
-      <ant:fail>The release '${versionVariable}' could not be found in change log</ant:fail>
+      <ant:fail>The ${versionVariable} release could not be found in the changes.xml file.</ant:fail>
+    </j:if>
+
+    <!-- Check if a <version> tag is defined in the POM for the current release to be announced -->
+    <j:if test="${size(pom.versions)!=0}">
+      <j:set var="foundTag" value="false"/>
+      <j:forEach var="version" items="${pom.versions}">
+        <j:if test="${version.id==versionVariable}">
+          <j:set var="foundTag" value="true"/>
+          <j:break/>
+        </j:if>
+      </j:forEach>
+      <j:if test="${!foundTag}">
+        <ant:fail>Missing "version" element in the POM for release ${versionVariable}.</ant:fail>
+      </j:if>
     </j:if>
     
   </goal>
diff --git a/announcement/xdocs/changes.xml b/announcement/xdocs/changes.xml
index 5a8ee740..08c09303 100644
--- a/announcement/xdocs/changes.xml
+++ b/announcement/xdocs/changes.xml
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@
   </properties>
   <body>
     <release version="1.3-SNAPSHOT" date="in CVS">
+      <action dev="vmassol" type="add" issue="MPANNOUNCEMENT-14" due-to="Felipe Leme">
+        Added check to verify that the POM has a <code>version</code> element for the
+        announcement to be generated.
+      </action>
       <action dev="vmassol" type="add" issue="MPANNOUNCEMENT-13" due-to="Felipe Leme">
         Added new optional <code>maven.announcement.encoding</code> property 
         that defines which charset encoding to use to generate the text announcement
