diff --git a/src/libxml2_loader.cpp b/src/libxml2_loader.cpp
index 4d978c47c..02db6f388 100644
--- a/src/libxml2_loader.cpp
+++ b/src/libxml2_loader.cpp
@@ -39,7 +39,13 @@
 // stl
 #include <stdexcept>
 
+#if LIBXML_VERSION >= 20900
+#define DEFAULT_OPTIONS (XML_PARSE_NOERROR | XML_PARSE_NOENT | XML_PARSE_NOBLANKS | XML_PARSE_DTDLOAD | XML_PARSE_NOCDATA | XML_PARSE_HUGE | XML_PARSE_BIG_LINES)
+#elif LIBXML_VERSION >= 20703
+#define DEFAULT_OPTIONS (XML_PARSE_NOERROR | XML_PARSE_NOENT | XML_PARSE_NOBLANKS | XML_PARSE_DTDLOAD | XML_PARSE_NOCDATA | XML_PARSE_HUGE)
+#else
 #define DEFAULT_OPTIONS (XML_PARSE_NOERROR | XML_PARSE_NOENT | XML_PARSE_NOBLANKS | XML_PARSE_DTDLOAD | XML_PARSE_NOCDATA)
+#endif
 
 namespace mapnik
 {