diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/IntegrationTestSuite.java b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/IntegrationTestSuite.java
index 447965ca78..72adc475f2 100644
--- a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/IntegrationTestSuite.java
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/IntegrationTestSuite.java
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ public class IntegrationTestSuite
         // suite.addTestSuite( MavenIT0109ReleaseUpdateTest.class );
         // suite.addTestSuite( MavenIT0108SnapshotUpdateTest.class ); -- MNG-3137
 
+        suite.addTestSuite( MavenITmng4396AntBasedMojoSupportTest.class );
         suite.addTestSuite( MavenITmng4393ParseExternalParenPomLenientTest.class );
         suite.addTestSuite( MavenITmng4387QuietLoggingTest.class );
         suite.addTestSuite( MavenITmng4386DebugLoggingTest.class );
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng4396AntBasedMojoSupportTest.java b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng4396AntBasedMojoSupportTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b32abde877
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng4396AntBasedMojoSupportTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+package org.apache.maven.it;
+
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you 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.it.Verifier;
+import org.apache.maven.it.util.ResourceExtractor;
+
+import java.io.File;
+
+/**
+ * This is a test set for <a href="http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MNG-4396">MNG-4396</a>.
+ * 
+ * @author Benjamin Bentmann
+ */
+public class MavenITmng4396AntBasedMojoSupportTest
+    extends AbstractMavenIntegrationTestCase
+{
+
+    public MavenITmng4396AntBasedMojoSupportTest()
+    {
+        super( ALL_MAVEN_VERSIONS );
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Verify that plugins whose mojos are implemented as Ant scripts can be invoked.
+     */
+    public void testit()
+        throws Exception
+    {
+        File testDir = ResourceExtractor.simpleExtractResources( getClass(), "/mng-4396" );
+
+        Verifier verifier = new Verifier( testDir.getAbsolutePath() );
+        verifier.setAutoclean( false );
+        verifier.deleteDirectory( "target" );
+        verifier.executeGoal( "validate" );
+        verifier.verifyErrorFreeLog();
+        verifier.resetStreams();
+
+        verifier.assertFilePresent( "target/ant.txt" );
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4396/pom.xml b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4396/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5a2730ab5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4396/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you 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.
+-->
+
+<project>
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+  <groupId>org.apache.maven.its.mng4396</groupId>
+  <artifactId>test</artifactId>
+  <version>0.1</version>
+
+  <name>Maven Integration Test :: MNG-4396</name>
+  <description>
+    Verify that plugins whose mojos are implemented as Ant scripts can be invoked.
+  </description>
+
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.apache.maven.its.plugins</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-it-plugin-ant-based</artifactId>
+        <version>2.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <configuration>
+          <outputFile>target/ant.txt</outputFile>
+        </configuration>
+        <executions>
+          <execution>
+            <id>test</id>
+            <phase>validate</phase>
+            <goals>
+              <goal>touch</goal>
+            </goals>
+          </execution>
+        </executions>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+</project>
diff --git a/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/maven-it-plugin-ant-based/pom.xml b/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/maven-it-plugin-ant-based/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ad31dcc9e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/maven-it-plugin-ant-based/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you 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.
+-->
+
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+  <parent>
+    <artifactId>maven-it-plugins</artifactId>
+    <groupId>org.apache.maven.its.plugins</groupId>
+    <version>2.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  </parent>
+
+  <artifactId>maven-it-plugin-ant-based</artifactId>
+  <packaging>maven-plugin</packaging>
+
+  <name>Maven Integration Test Plugin :: Ant-Based</name>
+  <description>
+    A test plugin whose mojos are implemented via Ant scripts.
+  </description>
+  <inceptionYear>2009</inceptionYear>
+
+  <properties>
+    <maven.test.skip>true</maven.test.skip>
+  </properties>
+
+  <dependencies>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
+      <artifactId>maven-script-ant</artifactId>
+      <version>2.0.6</version>
+      <exclusions>
+        <exclusion>
+          <groupId>ant</groupId>
+          <artifactId>ant</artifactId>
+        </exclusion>
+        <exclusion>
+          <groupId>ant</groupId>
+          <artifactId>ant-launcher</artifactId>
+        </exclusion>
+      </exclusions>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.ant</groupId>
+      <artifactId>ant</artifactId>
+      <version>1.7.1</version>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.ant</groupId>
+      <artifactId>ant-launcher</artifactId>
+      <version>1.7.1</version>
+    </dependency>
+  </dependencies>
+
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-plugin-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!--
+        NOTE: We deliberately use version 2.4.x here as it produces interesting plugin descriptors for Ant-based
+        mojos, namely something like <implementation>/touch.build.xml:touch</implementation>. Note the leading
+        slash in this case. This string will be used as a resource name to load the Ant script from the plugin
+        class path which requires some special treatment to work (ClassLoader.getResource() usually does not find
+        resources that have a leading slash).
+        NOTE: We use a version that is different from the version used by the other modules to workaround MNG-1323
+        via MNG-3284.
+        -->
+        <version>2.4.2</version>
+        <dependencies>
+          <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugin-tools</groupId>
+            <artifactId>maven-plugin-tools-ant</artifactId>
+            <version>2.4.2</version>
+          </dependency>
+        </dependencies>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+</project>
diff --git a/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/maven-it-plugin-ant-based/src/main/scripts/touch.build.xml b/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/maven-it-plugin-ant-based/src/main/scripts/touch.build.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7593259d56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/maven-it-plugin-ant-based/src/main/scripts/touch.build.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you 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.
+-->
+<project name="IT" default="touch" basedir=".">
+
+  <target name="touch" description="Creates a touch file.">
+    <echo level="info" message="[MAVEN-CORE-IT-LOG] Creating touch file ${outputFile}" />
+    <touch file="${outputFile}" mkdirs="true" />
+  </target>
+
+</project>
diff --git a/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/maven-it-plugin-ant-based/src/main/scripts/touch.mojos.xml b/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/maven-it-plugin-ant-based/src/main/scripts/touch.mojos.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..14fe67110c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/maven-it-plugin-ant-based/src/main/scripts/touch.mojos.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you 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.
+-->
+<pluginMetadata>
+  <mojos>
+    <mojo>
+      <goal>touch</goal>
+      <call>touch</call>
+      <description>Creates a touch file.</description>
+      <requiresProject>true</requiresProject>
+      <parameters>
+        <parameter>
+          <name>touch.outputFile</name> 
+          <property>outputFile</property>
+          <defaultValue>target/touch.txt</defaultValue>
+          <type>java.io.File</type>
+          <description>The path to the touch file.</description>
+        </parameter>
+       </parameters>
+    </mojo>
+  </mojos>
+</pluginMetadata>
diff --git a/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/pom.xml b/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/pom.xml
index 1d8e9c84a7..ab5a714a79 100644
--- a/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/pom.xml
+++ b/its/core-it-support/core-it-plugins/pom.xml
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ under the License.
 
   <modules>
     <module>maven-it-plugin-active-collection</module>
+    <module>maven-it-plugin-ant-based</module>
     <module>maven-it-plugin-artifact</module>
     <module>maven-it-plugin-class-loader</module>
     <module>maven-it-plugin-configuration</module>
diff --git a/its/core-it-support/pom.xml b/its/core-it-support/pom.xml
index dbe0836941..b2a804d365 100644
--- a/its/core-it-support/pom.xml
+++ b/its/core-it-support/pom.xml
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@ software distributed under the License is distributed on an
 KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
 specific language governing permissions and limitations
 under the License.
---><project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
+-->
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
   <parent>
@@ -72,4 +73,4 @@ under the License.
       </repositories>
     </profile>
   </profiles>
-</project>
\ No newline at end of file
+</project>