diff --git a/sandbox/maven-par-plugin/pom.xml b/sandbox/maven-par-plugin/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6b29829856
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox/maven-par-plugin/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+<model>
+  <parent>
+    <artifactId>maven-plugin-parent</artifactId>
+    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+    <version>2.0</version>
+  </parent>
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+  <artifactId>maven-par-plugin</artifactId>
+  <packaging>maven-plugin</packaging>
+  <name>Maven Par plugin</name>
+  <version>2.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  <dependencies>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
+      <artifactId>maven-project</artifactId>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
+      <artifactId>maven-archiver</artifactId>
+      <version>2.0</version>
+    </dependency>
+  </dependencies>
+</model>
diff --git a/sandbox/maven-par-plugin/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/par/ParMojo.java b/sandbox/maven-par-plugin/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/par/ParMojo.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..37877fd056
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox/maven-par-plugin/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/par/ParMojo.java
@@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
+package org.apache.maven.plugin.par;
+
+/*
+ * Copyright 2001-2005 The Apache Software Foundation.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+import org.apache.maven.archiver.MavenArchiveConfiguration;
+import org.apache.maven.archiver.MavenArchiver;
+import org.apache.maven.plugin.AbstractMojo;
+import org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException;
+import org.apache.maven.project.MavenProject;
+import org.codehaus.plexus.util.FileUtils;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+/**
+ * Builds J2EE5 Persistence Archive (PAR) files.
+ *
+ * @author <a href="piotr@bzdyl.net">Piotr Bzdyl</a>
+ * @version $Id$
+ * @goal par
+ * @phase package
+ * @description build a par
+ */
+public class ParMojo
+    extends AbstractMojo
+{
+
+    private static final String[] DEFAULT_EXCLUDES = new String[]{"**/package.html"};
+
+    private static final String[] DEFAULT_INCLUDES = new String[]{"**/**"};
+    
+
+    /**
+     * Directory containing the generated PAR.
+     *
+     * @parameter expression="${project.build.directory}"
+     * @required
+     * @readonly
+     */
+    private File basedir;
+
+    /**
+     * Name of the generated PAR.
+     *
+     * @parameter alias="parName" expression="${project.build.finalName}"
+     * @required
+     */
+    private String finalName;
+
+    /**
+     * Directory containing the classes.
+     *
+     * @parameter expression="${project.build.outputDirectory}"
+     * @required
+     * @readonly
+     */
+    private File outputDirectory;
+
+    /**
+     * Single directory for extra files to include in the PAR.
+     *
+     * @parameter expression="${basedir}/src/main/par"
+     * @required
+     */
+    private File parSourceDirectory;
+
+    /**
+     * The location of the persistence.xml file to be used within the par file.
+     *
+     * @parameter expression="${basedir}/src/main/par/META-INF/persistence.xml"
+     */
+    private File persistenceXmlLocation;
+
+    /**
+     * The maven project.
+     *
+     * @parameter expression="${project}"
+     * @required
+     * @readonly
+     */
+    private MavenProject project;
+
+    /**
+     * The maven archiver to use.
+     *
+     * @parameter
+     */
+    private MavenArchiveConfiguration archive = new MavenArchiveConfiguration();
+
+    /**
+     * Generates the PAR.
+     *
+     * @todo Add license files in META-INF directory.
+     */
+    public void execute()
+        throws MojoExecutionException
+    {
+        // Copy source files
+        try
+        {
+            if ( parSourceDirectory != null
+                    && parSourceDirectory.exists() )
+            {
+                getLog().info( "Copy par resources to " + outputDirectory.getAbsolutePath() );
+                FileUtils.copyDirectoryStructure( parSourceDirectory, outputDirectory );
+            }
+        }
+        catch ( IOException e )
+        {
+            throw new MojoExecutionException( "Error copying PAR resources", e );
+        }
+
+        // Check if persistence deployment descriptor is there
+        if ( persistenceXmlLocation == null
+                || !persistenceXmlLocation.exists() )
+        {
+            getLog().warn(
+                "Persistence deployment descriptor: " + persistenceXmlLocation + " does not exist." );
+        }
+
+
+        
+        File parFile = new File( basedir, finalName + ".par" );
+
+        MavenArchiver archiver = new MavenArchiver();
+
+        archiver.setOutputFile( parFile );
+
+        try
+        {
+            if ( outputDirectory == null || !outputDirectory.exists() )
+            {
+                getLog().warn( "PAR will be empty - no content was marked for inclusion!" );
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                archiver.getArchiver().addDirectory( outputDirectory, DEFAULT_INCLUDES, DEFAULT_EXCLUDES );
+            }
+
+            archiver.createArchive( project, archive );
+
+            project.getArtifact().setFile( parFile );
+        }
+        catch ( Exception e )
+        {
+            // TODO: improve error handling
+            throw new MojoExecutionException( "Error assembling PAR", e );
+        }
+    }
+}