diff --git a/src/system/libroot/posix/locale/setlocale.c b/src/system/libroot/posix/locale/setlocale.c
index 1717421bba..0bf9b26ce5 100644
--- a/src/system/libroot/posix/locale/setlocale.c
+++ b/src/system/libroot/posix/locale/setlocale.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2004-2006, Axel Dörfler, axeld@pinc-software.de. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright 2004-2007, Axel Dörfler, axeld@pinc-software.de. All rights reserved.
  * Distributed under the terms of the MIT License.
  */
 
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 char *
 setlocale(int category, const char *locale)
 {
-	if (locale == NULL)
+	if (locale == NULL || !locale[0])
 		return "C";
 
 	// ToDo: this should check if liblocale.so is available and use its functions