diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 8900aedb1c..38502ba751 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1178,7 +1178,7 @@ GDK_DEP_CFLAGS="`$PKG_CONFIG --cflags  gthread-2.0 $GDK_PACKAGES` $GDK_EXTRA_CFL
 # into the pkg-config files
 #
 if test $enable_explicit_deps != yes ; then
-  GDK_PACKAGES="$PANGO_PACKAGES gdk-pixbuf-2.0"
+  GDK_PACKAGES="$PANGO_PACKAGES gdk-pixbuf-2.0 cairo-gobject"
   GDK_EXTRA_LIBS=
 fi