diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index d0411c60fb8298c0a4930d9220cc2144f79d1133..44c9a26cc6187bc73048c9fd5858f79c88f5484b 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -255,6 +255,14 @@ if test "$USING_CAIRO" = "yes"; then
    AC_SUBST(CAIROMM_CFLAGS)
    AC_SUBST(CAIROMM_LIBS)
    AC_PYTHON_MODULE(cairo)
+   [OLD_CXXFLAGS="${CXXFLAGS}"]
+   [OLD_CPPFLAGS="${CPPFLAGS}"]
+   [CXXFLAGS="${CXXFLAGS} ${CAIROMM_CFLAGS}"]
+   [CPPFLAGS="${CPPFLAGS} ${CAIROMM_CFLAGS}"]
+   AC_CHECK_HEADER([pycairo/pycairo.h], [],	
+        	   [AC_MSG_ERROR([pycairo headers not found])])
+   [CXXFLAGS="${OLD_CXXFLAGS}"]
+   [CPPFLAGS="${OLD_CPPFLAGS}"]
 fi
 
 dnl Checks for typedefs, structures, and compiler characteristics.
diff --git a/src/graph/draw/graph_cairo_draw.cc b/src/graph/draw/graph_cairo_draw.cc
index fb38e59c87c0172544db5e38f411624836b75763..3d41db0b0a4bd09053a147ff68d0b259e0a509ac 100644
--- a/src/graph/draw/graph_cairo_draw.cc
+++ b/src/graph/draw/graph_cairo_draw.cc
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
 #include <cairommconfig.h>
 #include <cairomm/context.h>
 #include <cairomm/surface.h>
-#include "pycairo/pycairo.h"
+#include <pycairo/pycairo.h>
 
 #include <boost/mpl/map/map50.hpp>