diff --git a/iptables-restore.c b/iptables-restore.c
index 74f7db3..c1888ce 100644
--- a/iptables-restore.c
+++ b/iptables-restore.c
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  *
  * This code is distributed under the terms of GNU GPL v2
  *
- * $Id: iptables-restore.c,v 1.24 2003/03/03 08:08:37 laforge Exp $
+ * $Id: iptables-restore.c,v 1.25 2003/03/06 11:56:31 laforge Exp $
  */
 
 #include <getopt.h>
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@
 
 int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 {
-	iptc_handle_t handle;
+	iptc_handle_t handle = NULL;
 	char buffer[10240];
 	int c;
 	char curtable[IPT_TABLE_MAXNAMELEN + 1];
@@ -180,6 +180,9 @@
 			}
 			strncpy(curtable, table, IPT_TABLE_MAXNAMELEN);
 
+			if (handle)
+				iptc_free(&handle);
+
 			handle = create_handle(table, modprobe);
 			if (noflush == 0) {
 				DEBUGP("Cleaning all chains of table '%s'\n",