diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 54179be4..1863f298 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 linkchecker (8.0-1) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
 
   * New upstream release.
+  * Require Python >= 2.7.2
 
  -- Bastian Kleineidam <calvin@debian.org>  Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:23:23 +0200
 
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 500094db..9d9d67b7 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Vcs-Browser: http://linkchecker.git.sourceforge.net/
 
 Package: linkchecker
 Architecture: any
-Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${python:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
+Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${python:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}, python (>= 2.7.2)
 Provides: ${python:Provides}
 Conflicts: python-dnspython
 Suggests: clamav-daemon,
diff --git a/doc/changelog.txt b/doc/changelog.txt
index 40647ed0..8452b0c3 100644
--- a/doc/changelog.txt
+++ b/doc/changelog.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ Features:
   hostname and the expiration date are checked.
 - cmdline: Added Nagios plugin script.
 
+Changes:
+- dependencies: Python >= 2.7.2 is now required
+
 Fixes:
 - gui: Fix saving of the debugmemory option.
 
diff --git a/doc/development.txt b/doc/development.txt
index 6ef51e4d..3a7d9bed 100644
--- a/doc/development.txt
+++ b/doc/development.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Requirements
 On Mac OS X systems, using MacPorts, Fink or homebrew for software
 installation is recommended.
 
-- Install Python >= 2.7 from http://www.python.org/
+- Install Python >= 2.7.2 from http://www.python.org/
 
 - Qt4 SDK development tools from http://qt.nokia.com/downloads
   The binary "qcollectiongenerator" is used to generate the
diff --git a/doc/install.txt b/doc/install.txt
index 5bc04e18..2dedf4db 100644
--- a/doc/install.txt
+++ b/doc/install.txt
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ First, install the required software.
    template from the source files, you will need xgettext with Python
    support. This is available in gettext >= 0.12.
 
-2. Python >= 2.7 from http://www.python.org/
+2. Python >= 2.7.2 from http://www.python.org/
    
    Be sure to also have installed the included distutils module.
    On most distributions, the distutils module is included in
diff --git a/doc/upgrading.txt b/doc/upgrading.txt
index 61378462..906bb068 100644
--- a/doc/upgrading.txt
+++ b/doc/upgrading.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 Upgrading
 =========
 
+Migrating from 7.9 to 8.0
+-------------------------
+Python 2.7.2 or newer is required (Python 3.x is not supported though).
+
 Migrating from 7.6 to 7.7
 -------------------------
 The deprecated options --check-html-w3 and --check-css-w3
diff --git a/linkcheck/__init__.py b/linkcheck/__init__.py
index 33519647..78bc951b 100644
--- a/linkcheck/__init__.py
+++ b/linkcheck/__init__.py
@@ -20,9 +20,11 @@ Main function module for link checking.
 
 # imports and checks
 import sys
+# Needs Python >= 2.7 because we use dictionary based logging config
+# Needs Python >= 2.7.2 which fixed http://bugs.python.org/issue11467
 if not (hasattr(sys, 'version_info') or
-        sys.version_info < (2, 7, 0, 'final', 0)):
-    raise SystemExit("This program requires Python 2.7 or later.")
+        sys.version_info < (2, 7, 2, 'final', 0)):
+    raise SystemExit("This program requires Python 2.7.2 or later.")
 import os
 import re
 
diff --git a/linkcheck/url.py b/linkcheck/url.py
index 797eef86..0a8440c4 100644
--- a/linkcheck/url.py
+++ b/linkcheck/url.py
@@ -32,53 +32,6 @@ for scheme in ('ldap', 'irc'):
     if scheme not in urlparse.uses_netloc:
         urlparse.uses_netloc.append(scheme)
 
-if sys.version_info[0] > 2 or sys.version_info[1] > 6:
-    # Fix Python regression; see http://bugs.python.org/issue11467
-    def urlsplit_26(url, scheme='', allow_fragments=True):
-        """Parse a URL into 5 components:
-        <scheme>://<netloc>/<path>?<query>#<fragment>
-        Return a 5-tuple: (scheme, netloc, path, query, fragment).
-        Note that we don't break the components up in smaller bits
-        (e.g. netloc is a single string) and we don't expand % escapes."""
-        allow_fragments = bool(allow_fragments)
-        key = url, scheme, allow_fragments, type(url), type(scheme)
-        cached = urlparse._parse_cache.get(key, None)
-        if cached:
-            return cached
-        if len(urlparse._parse_cache) >= urlparse.MAX_CACHE_SIZE: # avoid runaway growth
-            urlparse.clear_cache()
-        netloc = query = fragment = ''
-        i = url.find(':')
-        if i > 0:
-            if url[:i] == 'http': # optimize the common case
-                scheme = url[:i].lower()
-                url = url[i+1:]
-                if url[:2] == '//':
-                    netloc, url = urlparse._splitnetloc(url, 2)
-                if allow_fragments and '#' in url:
-                    url, fragment = url.split('#', 1)
-                if '?' in url:
-                    url, query = url.split('?', 1)
-                v = urlparse.SplitResult(scheme, netloc, url, query, fragment)
-                urlparse._parse_cache[key] = v
-                return v
-            for c in url[:i]:
-                if c not in urlparse.scheme_chars:
-                    break
-            else:
-                scheme, url = url[:i].lower(), url[i+1:]
-        if url[:2] == '//':
-            netloc, url = urlparse._splitnetloc(url, 2)
-        if allow_fragments and scheme in urlparse.uses_fragment and '#' in url:
-            url, fragment = url.split('#', 1)
-        if scheme in urlparse.uses_query and '?' in url:
-            url, query = url.split('?', 1)
-        v = urlparse.SplitResult(scheme, netloc, url, query, fragment)
-        urlparse._parse_cache[key] = v
-        return v
-
-    urlparse.urlsplit = urlsplit_26
-
 # The character set to encode non-ASCII characters in a URL. See also
 # http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2396#section-2.1
 # Note that the encoding is not really specified, but most browsers