Index: Lib/urllib/request.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/urllib/request.py	(revision 84773)
+++ Lib/urllib/request.py	(working copy)
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@
 class Request:
 
     def __init__(self, url, data=None, headers={},
-                 origin_req_host=None, unverifiable=False):
+                 origin_req_host=None, unverifiable=False, method=None):
         # unwrap('<URL:type://host/path>') --> 'type://host/path'
         self.full_url = unwrap(url)
         self.full_url, fragment = splittag(self.full_url)
@@ -174,6 +174,7 @@
             origin_req_host = request_host(self)
         self.origin_req_host = origin_req_host
         self.unverifiable = unverifiable
+        self.method = method
         self._parse()
 
     def _parse(self):
@@ -185,6 +186,9 @@
             self.host = unquote(self.host)
 
     def get_method(self):
+        if self.method is not None:
+            return self.method
+
         if self.data is not None:
             return "POST"
         else: