diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 0bbbd4af..3fc85e73 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -83,12 +83,16 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE([gui],
         [AC_HELP_STRING([--disable-gui],[don't build netgen with GUI])],
         [if test "$enableval" = yes; then ngguion=true; else ngguion=false; fi])
 
+AC_ARG_WITH([metis], 
+        [AC_HELP_STRING([--with-metis=dir],[path to metis 5.x])],
+        [metisdir=$withval],
+        [metisdir=/usr/local]
+	)
 
 AC_ARG_ENABLE([parallel],
         [AC_HELP_STRING([--enable-parallel],[enable mpi parallelization])],
-        [AC_SUBST([MPI_INCLUDES], "-DPARALLEL -I/usr/local/include/METISLib -I/usr/include/metis  -DMETIS")
-        AC_SUBST([MPI_LIBS], "-lmetis")
-        ]
+	[AC_SUBST([MPI_INCLUDES], "-DPARALLEL -I$(metisdir)/include -DMETIS")]
+	[AC_SUBST([MPI_LIBS], "-L$(metisdir)/lib -lmetis")]
         )       
 #          -DVTRACE
 #          -lvt-hyb