diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index ef4f952ab2dbc200852cfd8f66be8fcd96e2e6ec..4b5713ff2ddd7b63675dcce1f060df832900fa07 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -469,6 +469,12 @@ dnl ** check for specific library functions that we are interested in
 #
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(access ftime getclock getpagesize getrusage gettimeofday mktime mprotect setitimer stat sysconf timelocal times vadvise vfork)
 
+#
+dnl ** check whether this machine has GMP 2.0 installed
+#
+AC_CHECK_LIB(gmp, mpz_fdiv_qr, HaveLibGmp=YES, HaveLibGmp=NO)
+AC_SUBST(HaveLibGmp)
+
 #
 # Misc
 #
@@ -476,6 +482,8 @@ dnl ** can we get alloca?
 AC_FUNC_ALLOCA
 dnl ** determine whether or not const works
 AC_C_CONST
+dnl ** are we big endian?
+AC_C_BIGENDIAN
 dnl ** determine the type of signal()
 AC_TYPE_SIGNAL