diff --git a/VERSION.txt b/VERSION.txt
index dfec95d6887..ec6d1286579 100644
--- a/VERSION.txt
+++ b/VERSION.txt
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ jetty-7.4.4-SNAPSHOT
  + 350397 SelectChannelConnector does not shutdown gracefully
  + 351039 Forward dispatch should retain locale
  + 351199 HttpServletResponse.encodeURL() wrongly encodes an url without path when cookies are disabled
+ + JETTY-1153 Default charset/encoding of HTTP POST requests
  + JETTY-1380 Jetty Rewrite example does not work in Hightide
 
 jetty-7.4.3.v20110701 01 July 2011
diff --git a/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/UrlEncoded.java b/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/UrlEncoded.java
index a6f397dc60a..24914935709 100644
--- a/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/UrlEncoded.java
+++ b/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/UrlEncoded.java
@@ -507,7 +507,14 @@ public class UrlEncoded extends MultiMap
     public static void decodeTo(InputStream in, MultiMap map, String charset, int maxLength)
     throws IOException
     {
-        if (charset==null || StringUtil.__UTF8.equalsIgnoreCase(charset))
+        //no charset present, use the configured default
+        if (charset==null) 
+        {
+           charset=ENCODING;
+        }
+            
+            
+        if (StringUtil.__UTF8.equalsIgnoreCase(charset))
         {
             decodeUtf8To(in,map,maxLength);
             return;
diff --git a/jetty-util/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/URLEncodedTest.java b/jetty-util/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/URLEncodedTest.java
index 2e25a7af90a..30f70621404 100644
--- a/jetty-util/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/URLEncodedTest.java
+++ b/jetty-util/src/test/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/URLEncodedTest.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 
+import org.junit.Ignore;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
 
@@ -28,6 +29,19 @@ import org.junit.Test;
  */
 public class URLEncodedTest
 {
+    
+    /* -------------------------------------------------------------- */
+    static 
+    {
+        /*
+         * Uncomment to set setting the System property to something other than the default of UTF-8.
+         * Beware however that you will have to @Ignore all the other tests other than testUrlEncodedStream!
+         
+            System.setProperty("org.eclipse.jetty.util.UrlEncoding.charset", StringUtil.__ISO_8859_1);
+         */
+    }
+
+    
     /* -------------------------------------------------------------- */
     @Test
     public void testUrlEncoded() throws UnsupportedEncodingException
@@ -160,6 +174,7 @@ public class URLEncodedTest
            {StringUtil.__UTF16,StringUtil.__UTF16},
         };
         
+
         for (int i=0;i<charsets.length;i++)
         {
             ByteArrayInputStream in = new ByteArrayInputStream("name\n=value+%30&name1=&name2&n\u00e3me3=value+3".getBytes(charsets[i][0]));
@@ -184,7 +199,28 @@ public class URLEncodedTest
         }
         else
             assertTrue("Charset Shift_JIS not supported by jvm", true);
+     
     }
+    
+    
+    /* -------------------------------------------------------------- */
+    @Test
+    public void testCharsetViaSystemProperty ()
+    throws Exception 
+    {        
+        /*
+         * Uncomment to test setting a non-UTF-8 default character encoding using the SystemProperty org.eclipse.jetty.util.UrlEncoding.charset.
+         * You will also need to uncomment the static initializer that sets this SystemProperty near the top of this file.
+  
+
+        ByteArrayInputStream in3 = new ByteArrayInputStream("name=libell%E9".getBytes(StringUtil.__ISO_8859_1));
+        MultiMap m3 = new MultiMap();
+        UrlEncoded.decodeTo(in3, m3, null, -1);
+        assertEquals("stream name", "libell\u00E9", m3.getString("name"));
+        
+        */ 
+    }
+    
 
     /* -------------------------------------------------------------- */
     @Test