diff --git a/war/plugin.jelly b/war/plugin.jelly
index 1ddf47e8..68207df6 100644
--- a/war/plugin.jelly
+++ b/war/plugin.jelly
@@ -43,10 +43,16 @@
   <!-- Builds a war file                                                -->
   <!--==================================================================-->    
   <goal name="war:war" prereqs="war:webapp" description="Build a war file">
+
+    <j:choose>
+      <j:when test="${pom.currentVersion == null}">
+        <ant:fail>You must define currentVersion in your POM.</ant:fail>
+      </j:when>
+    </j:choose>
     
     <ant:echo>Building WAR ${pom.artifactId}</ant:echo>
 
-    <!-- build dependency list -->    
+    <!-- build dependency list -->
     <j:forEach var="dep" items="${pom.dependencies}">
       <j:if test="${dep.getProperty('war.manifest.classpath')=='true'}">
         <j:set var="maven.war.classpath" value="${maven.war.classpath} ${dep.artifact}"/>
@@ -56,6 +62,12 @@
     <ant:available property="maven.war.manifest.available"
       file="${maven.war.manifest}"/>
 
+    <j:set var="specificationTitle" value="${pom.shortDescription.trim()}"/>
+    <j:if test="${specificationTitle.length() gt 49}">
+      <ant:echo>Warning: shortDescription is greater than 49 characters - trimming for specification title.</ant:echo>
+      <j:set var="specificationTitle" value="${specificationTitle.substring(0,46)}..."/>
+    </j:if>
+
     <ant:mkdir dir="${maven.war.build.dir}" />
     <ant:jar 
          destfile="${maven.war.build.dir}/${maven.war.final.name}"
@@ -73,25 +85,48 @@
       </j:if>
 
       <ant:manifest>
+        <ant:attribute name="Built-By" value="${user.name}"/>
+
+        <j:set var="mavenVersion" value="${maven.application.version}"/>
+        <j:if test="${mavenVersion != null}">
+          <ant:attribute name="Maven-Version" value="${mavenVersion}"/>
+        </j:if>
+
         <j:set var="classPath" value="${maven.war.classpath}"/>
         <j:if test="${!empty(classPath)}">
             <ant:attribute name="Class-Path" value="${maven.war.classpath}"/>
         </j:if>
 
-        <ant:attribute name="Built-By" value="${user.name}" />
-        <ant:section name="${pom.package}">
-          <ant:attribute name="Specification-Title" value="${pom.artifactId}" />
-          <ant:attribute name="Specification-Version"
-                     value="${pom.currentVersion}" />
-          <ant:attribute name="Specification-Vendor"
-                     value="${pom.organization.name}" />
-          <ant:attribute name="Implementation-Title"
-                     value="${pom.package}" />
-          <ant:attribute name="Implementation-Version"
-                     value="${pom.currentVersion}" />
-          <ant:attribute name="Implementation-Vendor"
-                     value="${pom.organization.name}" />
-        </ant:section>
+        <!-- Remove SNAPSHOT -->
+        <j:choose>
+          <j:when test="${pom.currentVersion.endsWith('-SNAPSHOT')}">
+            <j:invokeStatic className="org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils" method="substringBeforeLast" var="pomCurrentVersion">
+                <j:arg value="${pom.currentVersion}" type="java.lang.String"/>
+                <j:arg value="-SNAPSHOT" type="java.lang.String"/>
+            </j:invokeStatic>
+          </j:when>
+          <j:otherwise>
+            <j:set var="pomCurrentVersion" value="${pom.currentVersion}"/>
+          </j:otherwise>
+        </j:choose>
+
+        <util:tokenize var="versionItems" delim="." trim="true">${pomCurrentVersion}</util:tokenize>
+        <j:if test="${size(versionItems) > 0}">
+          <j:set var="specificationVersion" value="${versionItems[0]}" />
+        </j:if>
+        <j:if test="${size(versionItems) > 1}">
+          <j:set var="specificationVersion" value="${specificationVersion}.${versionItems[1]}" />
+        </j:if>
+        <j:if test="${size(versionItems) > 2}">
+          <j:set var="specificationVersion" value="${specificationVersion}.${versionItems[2]}" />
+        </j:if>
+
+        <ant:attribute name="Specification-Title" value="${specificationTitle}"/>
+        <ant:attribute name="Specification-Vendor" value="${pom.organization.name}"/>
+        <ant:attribute name="Specification-Version" value="${specificationVersion}"/>
+        <ant:attribute name="Implementation-Title" value="${pom.package}"/>
+        <ant:attribute name="Implementation-Vendor" value="${pom.organization.name}"/>
+        <ant:attribute name="Implementation-Version" value="${pom.currentVersion}"/>
       </ant:manifest>
 
     </ant:jar>
diff --git a/war/project.xml b/war/project.xml
index a2b4b3dc..e8daa565 100644
--- a/war/project.xml
+++ b/war/project.xml
@@ -85,5 +85,15 @@
       <timezone>-3</timezone>
     </developer>
   </developers>
-  <dependencies/>
+  <dependencies>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>commons-lang</groupId>
+      <artifactId>commons-lang</artifactId>
+      <version>2.0</version>
+      <url>http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/lang/</url>
+      <properties>
+        <comment>This library is already loaded by maven's core. Be careful to use the same version number as in the core.</comment>
+      </properties>
+    </dependency>
+  </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/war/xdocs/changes.xml b/war/xdocs/changes.xml
index 5704daf7..53bfe7e7 100644
--- a/war/xdocs/changes.xml
+++ b/war/xdocs/changes.xml
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
   </properties>
   <body>
     <release version="1.6.2-SNAPSHOT" date="in SVN">
+      <action dev="snicoll" type="fix" issue="MPWAR-47">Specification and Implementation attributes of the manifest are now defined as main attributes.</action>
       <action dev="snicoll" type="add" issue="MPWAR-43">Aded the ability to customize the Class-Path entry of the manifest</action>
       <action dev="snicoll" type="update" issue="MPWAR-49">Added property <code>maven.war.resources.overwrite</code> to control is resources overwrites the ones in the generated webapp directory.</action>
       <action dev="snicoll" type="update" issue="MPWAR-37" due-to="Troy Poppe">Added ability to expand properties when copying war resources.</action>