diff --git a/war/plugin.jelly b/war/plugin.jelly
index c5168b2a..664488d3 100644
--- a/war/plugin.jelly
+++ b/war/plugin.jelly
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@
     
     <ant:echo>Building WAR ${pom.artifactId}</ant:echo>
 
+    <ant:available property="maven.war.manifest.available"
+      file="${maven.war.manifest}"/>
+
     <ant:mkdir dir="${maven.war.build.dir}" />
     <ant:jar 
          destfile="${maven.war.build.dir}/${maven.war.final.name}"
@@ -66,6 +69,10 @@
         <ant:include name="${licenseFile.canonicalFile.name}"/>
       </ant:metainf>
 
+      <j:if test="${maven.war.manifest.available}">
+        <ant:setProperty name="manifest" value="${maven.war.manifest}" />
+      </j:if>
+
       <ant:manifest>
         <ant:attribute name="Built-By" value="${user.name}" />
         <ant:section name="${pom.package}">
diff --git a/war/plugin.properties b/war/plugin.properties
index d7c10041..d7fb1eae 100644
--- a/war/plugin.properties
+++ b/war/plugin.properties
@@ -40,3 +40,5 @@ maven.war.build.dir = ${maven.build.dir}
 # ${maven.war.build.dir}/${pom.artifactId}
 maven.war.webapp.dir = ${maven.war.build.dir}/${pom.artifactId}
 maven.war.tld.dir=WEB-INF/tld
+
+maven.jar.manifest=${pom.build.sourceDirectory}/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/war/project.xml b/war/project.xml
index 0dec92e8..ebd7621f 100644
--- a/war/project.xml
+++ b/war/project.xml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
   <pomVersion>3</pomVersion>
   <id>maven-war-plugin</id>
   <name>Maven WAR Plugin</name>
-  <currentVersion>1.5</currentVersion>
+  <currentVersion>1.6-SNAPSHOT</currentVersion>
   <description>War Plugin for Maven</description>
   <shortDescription>War Plugin for Maven</shortDescription>
   <url>http://maven.apache.org/reference/plugins/war/</url>
diff --git a/war/src/plugin-test/maven.xml b/war/src/plugin-test/maven.xml
index 8d8ee85f..36e90589 100644
--- a/war/src/plugin-test/maven.xml
+++ b/war/src/plugin-test/maven.xml
@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
  -->
-<project xmlns:j="jelly:core" xmlns:u="jelly:util">
+<project xmlns:j="jelly:core"
+         xmlns:assert="assert"
+         xmlns:u="jelly:util">
 
   <goal name="testPlugin" prereqs="test-war">
     <attainGoal name="clean"/>
@@ -23,20 +25,19 @@
   
   <goal name="test-war">
     <attainGoal name="war"/>
+    <j:set var="warFile" value="${maven.build.dir}/test-maven-war-plugin.war"/>
+    <j:set var="warDir" value="${maven.build.dir}/test-maven-war-plugin"/>
+    <assert:assertFileExists file="${warFile}"/>
+    <assert:assertFileExists file="${warDir}/WEB-INF/lib/commons-logging-1.0.3.jar"/>
 
-    <j:set var="expectedFile" 
-      value="${maven.build.dir}/test-maven-war-plugin.war"/>
-    <u:file var="file" name="${expectedFile}" />
-    <j:if test="${!(file.exists())}">
-      <fail>${expectedFile} not generated</fail>
+    <!-- check for manifest contents -->
+    <j:set var="unzipDir" value="${maven.build.dir}/unzippedWar"/>
+    <mkdir dir="${unzipDir}"/>
+    <unzip src="${warFile}" dest="${unzipDir}"/>
+    <u:loadText var="manifest" file="${unzipDir}/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF"/>
+    <j:set var="found" value='${manifest.indexOf("Bogus: value") ge 0}'/>
+    <j:if test="${!found}">
+      <fail>Manifest not merged</fail>
     </j:if>
-
-    <j:set var="expectedFile" 
-      value="${maven.build.dir}/test-maven-war-plugin/WEB-INF/lib/commons-logging-1.0.3.jar"/>
-    <u:file var="file" name="${expectedFile}" />
-    <j:if test="${!(file.exists())}">
-      <fail>${expectedFile} not generated</fail>
-    </j:if>
-
   </goal>
 </project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/war/src/plugin-test/project.properties b/war/src/plugin-test/project.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2ad131c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/war/src/plugin-test/project.properties
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+maven.war.manifest=${basedir}/src/MANIFEST.MF
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/war/src/plugin-test/src/MANIFEST.MF b/war/src/plugin-test/src/MANIFEST.MF
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..926781b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/war/src/plugin-test/src/MANIFEST.MF
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Bogus: value
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/war/xdocs/changes.xml b/war/xdocs/changes.xml
index baeedcae..fb7e1a3d 100644
--- a/war/xdocs/changes.xml
+++ b/war/xdocs/changes.xml
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@
     <author email="vmassol@apache.org">Vincent Massol</author>
   </properties>
   <body>
+    <release version="1.6" date="in CVS">
+      <action dev="dion" type="update" issue="MPWAR-22">Allow customizing of MANIFEST.MF</action>
+    </release>
+    
     <release version="1.5" date="2004-03-07">
       <action dev="dion" type="fix">Fix for MAVEN-986. Allow resources to be copied when no sources present</action>
       <action dev="vmassol" type="add">Use the new
diff --git a/war/xdocs/properties.xml b/war/xdocs/properties.xml
index 6610332d..eb29b4a1 100644
--- a/war/xdocs/properties.xml
+++ b/war/xdocs/properties.xml
@@ -112,6 +112,14 @@
               <code>${maven.war.build.dir}/${pom.artifactId}</code>.
           </td>
         </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td>maven.war.manifest</td>
+          <td>Yes</td>
+          <td>
+			Location of the MANIFEST.MF file in the source tree. It defaults to 
+			<code>${pom.build.sourceDirectory}/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF</code>.
+          </td>
+        </tr>
         <tr>
           <td>maven.war.index</td>
           <td>Yes</td>