diff --git a/maven-archiver/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/ManifestConfiguration.java b/maven-archiver/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/ManifestConfiguration.java
index ee0494bc1c..c0b350cd29 100644
--- a/maven-archiver/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/ManifestConfiguration.java
+++ b/maven-archiver/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/ManifestConfiguration.java
@@ -39,6 +39,11 @@ public class ManifestConfiguration
      */
     private String addExtensions;
 
+    /**
+     * This gets prefixed to all classpath entries.
+     */
+    private String classpathPrefix = "";
+
     public String getMainClass()
     {
         return mainClass;
@@ -58,4 +63,16 @@ public class ManifestConfiguration
     {
         return packageName;
     }
+
+    public String getClasspathPrefix()
+    {
+        String cpp = classpathPrefix.replaceAll( "\\\\", "/" );
+
+        if ( cpp.length() != 0 && !cpp.endsWith("/") )
+        {
+            cpp += "/";
+        }
+        
+        return cpp;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/maven-archiver/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/MavenArchiver.java b/maven-archiver/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/MavenArchiver.java
index 11e8f1b44d..ad851e8a72 100644
--- a/maven-archiver/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/MavenArchiver.java
+++ b/maven-archiver/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/archiver/MavenArchiver.java
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ public class MavenArchiver
         {
             StringBuffer classpath = new StringBuffer();
             List artifacts = project.getRuntimeClasspathElements();
+            String classpathPrefix = config.getClasspathPrefix();
 
             for ( Iterator iter = artifacts.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); )
             {
@@ -84,6 +85,7 @@ public class MavenArchiver
                         classpath.append( " " );
                     }
 
+                    classpath.append( classpathPrefix );
                     classpath.append( f.getName() );
                 }
             }