diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a76691f994..56eae4e380 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -508,12 +508,15 @@ fi
 dnl *** zlib is optionally used by id3 tag parsing in libgsttag ***
 translit(dnm, m, l) AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_ZLIB, true)
 AG_GST_CHECK_FEATURE(ZLIB, [zlib support for ID3 parsing in libgsttag],, [
-  AG_GST_CHECK_LIBHEADER(ZLIB,
-    z, uncompress,, zlib.h, [
-    HAVE_ZLIB="yes"
-    ZLIB_LIBS="-lz"
-    AC_SUBST(ZLIB_LIBS)
-  ])
+  PKG_CHECK_MODULES(ZLIB, [ zlib ], [
+      HAVE_ZLIB="yes"
+    ], [
+      AG_GST_CHECK_LIBHEADER(ZLIB, z, uncompress,, zlib.h, [
+        HAVE_ZLIB="yes"
+        ZLIB_LIBS="-lz"
+        AC_SUBST(ZLIB_LIBS)
+      ])
+    ])
 ])
 
 dnl *** sys plug-ins ***