diff --git a/python/header-py.c b/python/header-py.c
index 91fb6ffde..f12cbbe80 100644
--- a/python/header-py.c
+++ b/python/header-py.c
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 #include <rpm/rpmtag.h>
 #include <rpm/rpmstring.h>
 #include <rpm/rpmts.h>	/* XXX rpmtsCreate/rpmtsFree */
+#include <rpm/rpmver.h>
 
 #include "header-py.h"
 #include "rpmds-py.h"
@@ -888,36 +889,27 @@ PyObject * versionCompare (PyObject * self, PyObject * args, PyObject * kwds)
     return Py_BuildValue("i", rpmVersionCompare(h1->h, h2->h));
 }
 
-static int compare_values(const char *str1, const char *str2)
-{
-    if (!str1 && !str2)
-	return 0;
-    else if (str1 && !str2)
-	return 1;
-    else if (!str1 && str2)
-	return -1;
-    return rpmvercmp(str1, str2);
-}
-
 PyObject * labelCompare (PyObject * self, PyObject * args)
 {
     const char *v1, *r1, *v2, *r2;
     const char *e1, *e2;
-    int rc;
+    PyObject *rco = NULL;
 
     if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "(zzz)(zzz)",
 			&e1, &v1, &r1, &e2, &v2, &r2))
 	return NULL;
 
-    if (e1 == NULL)	e1 = "0";
-    if (e2 == NULL)	e2 = "0";
+    rpmver rv1 = rpmverNew(e1, v1, r1);
+    rpmver rv2 = rpmverNew(e2, v2, r2);
 
-    rc = compare_values(e1, e2);
-    if (!rc) {
-	rc = compare_values(v1, v2);
-	if (!rc)
-	    rc = compare_values(r1, r2);
-    }
-    return Py_BuildValue("i", rc);
+    if (rv1 && rv2)
+	rco = Py_BuildValue("i", rpmverCmp(rv1, rv2));
+    else
+	PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "invalid version label");
+
+    rpmverFree(rv1);
+    rpmverFree(rv2);
+
+    return rco;
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/rpmpython.at b/tests/rpmpython.at
index 29f0bb4de..b8233161e 100644
--- a/tests/rpmpython.at
+++ b/tests/rpmpython.at
@@ -155,8 +155,29 @@ h['release'] = r
 h['epoch'] = e
 myprint(rpm.labelCompare((str(h['epoch']), h['version'], h['release']),
 			 (str(e), v, r)))
+myprint(rpm.labelCompare((None, '1.0', '1'),
+			 (None, '1.1', '2')))
+myprint(rpm.labelCompare((None, '1.0', '1'),
+			 (None, '1.1', '1')))
+myprint(rpm.labelCompare((None, '1.1', '1'),
+			 (None, '1.0', '1')))
+myprint(rpm.labelCompare((None, '1.1', '1'),
+			 (None, '1.0', '2')))
+myprint(rpm.labelCompare(('1', '1.0', '1'),
+			 ('0', '1.0', '1')))
+myprint(rpm.labelCompare(('0', '1.0', '1'),
+			 ('1', '1.0', '1')))
+myprint(rpm.labelCompare(('0', '1.0', '1'),
+			 (None, '1.0', '1')))
 ],
-[0]
+[0
+-1
+-1
+1
+1
+1
+-1
+0]
 )
 
 RPMPY_TEST([vfyflags API],[