Index: configure.in
===================================================================
--- configure.in	(revision 86844)
+++ configure.in	(working copy)
@@ -1938,6 +1938,7 @@
             [],
             [with_system_expat="no"])
 
+AC_SUBST(WITH_SYSTEM_EXPAT, $with_system_expat)
 AC_MSG_RESULT($with_system_expat)
 
 # Check for use of the system libffi library
@@ -1954,6 +1955,7 @@
 fi
 AC_SUBST(LIBFFI_INCLUDEDIR)
 
+AC_SUBST(WITH_SYSTEM_FFI, $with_system_ffi)
 AC_MSG_RESULT($with_system_ffi)
 
 # Check for support for loadable sqlite extensions
@@ -1963,6 +1965,7 @@
               [],
               [enable_loadable_sqlite_extensions="no"])
 
+AC_SUBST(ENABLE_LOADABLE_SQLITE_EXTENSIONS, $enable_loadable_sqlite_extensions)
 AC_MSG_RESULT($enable_loadable_sqlite_extensions)
 
 # Check for --with-dbmliborder
Index: Makefile.pre.in
===================================================================
--- Makefile.pre.in	(revision 86844)
+++ Makefile.pre.in	(working copy)
@@ -148,6 +148,9 @@
 
 # configure script arguments
 CONFIG_ARGS=	@CONFIG_ARGS@
+WITH_SYSTEM_EXPAT=			@WITH_SYSTEM_EXPAT@
+WITH_SYSTEM_FFI=			@WITH_SYSTEM_FFI@
+ENABLE_LOADABLE_SQLITE_EXTENSIONS=	@ENABLE_LOADABLE_SQLITE_EXTENSIONS@
 
 
 # Subdirectories with code
Index: setup.py
===================================================================
--- setup.py	(revision 86844)
+++ setup.py	(working copy)
@@ -1010,7 +1010,7 @@
 
             # Enable support for loadable extensions in the sqlite3 module
             # if --enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions configure option is used.
-            if '--enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions' not in sysconfig.get_config_var("CONFIG_ARGS"):
+            if sysconfig.get_config_var("ENABLE_LOADABLE_SQLITE_EXTENSIONS") == "no":
                 sqlite_defines.append(("SQLITE_OMIT_LOAD_EXTENSION", "1"))
 
             if sys.platform == 'darwin':
@@ -1249,7 +1249,7 @@
         #
         # More information on Expat can be found at www.libexpat.org.
         #
-        if '--with-system-expat' in sysconfig.get_config_var("CONFIG_ARGS"):
+        if sysconfig.get_config_var("WITH_SYSTEM_EXPAT") != "no":
             expat_inc = []
             define_macros = []
             expat_lib = ['expat']
@@ -1710,7 +1710,7 @@
                              sources=['_ctypes/_ctypes_test.c'])
         self.extensions.extend([ext, ext_test])
 
-        if not '--with-system-ffi' in sysconfig.get_config_var("CONFIG_ARGS"):
+        if sysconfig.get_config_var("WITH_SYSTEM_FFI") == "no":
             return
 
         if sys.platform == 'darwin':