diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index b7d6bd9..1f6040f 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -5,11 +5,14 @@ Version 0.1.7
 _____________________________________
 
 General:
-	- Fixed makefiles for GNU/kFreeBSD, GNU/hurd (lf)
-	- Fixed build errors with gcc 4.3 pre-release (lf)
-	- Fixed compiler error that occurs when using 64 bit pointers (rs)
-	- Added more unit tests (rs)
-	- Several other bug fixes (rs, pk)
+    - Fixed makefiles for GNU/kFreeBSD, GNU/hurd (lf)
+    - Fixed build errors with gcc 4.3 pre-release (lf)
+    - Fixed compiler error that occurs when using 64 bit pointers (rs)
+    - Added more unit tests (rs)
+    - Several other bug fixes (rs, pk)
+
+Threads:
+    - add possibility to enable recursive mutex support for pthread (pk)
 
 CVS commits by Lukas Fittl (lf), Peter Kümmel (pk), Rich Sposato (rs)
 
@@ -20,8 +23,8 @@ February 25, 2007
 _____________________________________
 
 General:
-	- CacheFactory added by Guillaume Chatelet
-	- Factory documentation improved by Guillaume Chatelet
+    - CacheFactory added by Guillaume Chatelet
+    - Factory documentation improved by Guillaume Chatelet
     - migrated to subversion (pk)
     - Mac linker errors fixed (lf)
     - Makefiles can now be called from sub directories (lf)
diff --git a/include/loki/Threads.h b/include/loki/Threads.h
index 2c4375e..434c946 100644
--- a/include/loki/Threads.h
+++ b/include/loki/Threads.h
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@
 #define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_LOCK(x)      ::EnterCriticalSection (x)
 #define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_UNLOCK(x)    ::LeaveCriticalSection (x)
 #define LOKI_THREADS_LONG               LONG
+#define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_CTOR(x)
 
 #define LOKI_THREADS_ATOMIC_FUNCTIONS                                   \
         static IntType AtomicIncrement(volatile IntType& lval)          \
@@ -110,9 +111,17 @@
 
 #define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX(x)           pthread_mutex_t (x);
 
-// no recursive mutex support
 #define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_INIT(x)      ::pthread_mutex_init(x, 0)
 
+// define to 1 to enable recursive mutex support
+#if 0
+// experimental recursive mutex support
+#define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_CTOR(x)      : x(PTHREAD_RECURSIVE_MUTEX_INITIALIZER_NP)
+#else
+// no recursive mutex support
+#define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_CTOR(x)
+#endif
+
 #define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_DELETE(x)    ::pthread_mutex_destroy (x)
 #define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_LOCK(x)      ::pthread_mutex_lock (x)
 #define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_UNLOCK(x)    ::pthread_mutex_unlock (x)
@@ -147,6 +156,7 @@
 #define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_LOCK(x)         
 #define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_UNLOCK(x)       
 #define LOKI_THREADS_LONG               
+#define LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_CTOR(x)
 
 #endif
 
@@ -165,7 +175,7 @@ namespace Loki
     class Mutex
     {
     public:
-        Mutex()
+        Mutex() LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_CTOR(mtx_)
         {
             LOKI_THREADS_MUTEX_INIT(&mtx_);
         }