diff --git a/maven-project/src/main/aspect/org/apache/maven/project/aspect/compat/Maven20xProjectCompatAspect.aj b/maven-project/src/main/aspect/org/apache/maven/project/aspect/compat/Maven20xProjectCompatAspect.aj
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..64a836c502
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maven-project/src/main/aspect/org/apache/maven/project/aspect/compat/Maven20xProjectCompatAspect.aj
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+package org.apache.maven.project.aspect.compat;
+
+import org.apache.maven.project.DefaultMavenProjectBuilder;
+
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+public privileged aspect Maven20xProjectCompatAspect
+{
+
+    //DO NOT USE, it is here only for backward compatibility reasons. The existing
+    // maven-assembly-plugin (2.2-beta-1) is accessing it via reflection.
+    private Map DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.processedProjectCache = new HashMap();
+
+}
diff --git a/maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java b/maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java
index 18bb195d8b..d9fb1e1d8c 100644
--- a/maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java
+++ b/maven-project/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/project/DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java
@@ -162,11 +162,6 @@ public class DefaultMavenProjectBuilder
 
     public static final String MAVEN_MODEL_VERSION = "4.0.0";
 
-    //DO NOT USE, it is here only for backward compatibility reasons. The existing 
-    // maven-assembly-plugin (2.2-beta-1) is accessing it via reflection.
-    private Map processedProjectCache = new HashMap();
-    
-
     public void initialize()
     {
         modelReader = new MavenXpp3Reader();