diff --git a/org.jacoco.agent.rt.test/src/org/jacoco/agent/rt/CoverageTransformerTest.java b/org.jacoco.agent.rt.test/src/org/jacoco/agent/rt/CoverageTransformerTest.java
index 0acd70c..3b0ea83 100644
--- a/org.jacoco.agent.rt.test/src/org/jacoco/agent/rt/CoverageTransformerTest.java
+++ b/org.jacoco.agent.rt.test/src/org/jacoco/agent/rt/CoverageTransformerTest.java
@@ -78,14 +78,14 @@
 
 	@Test
 	public void testFilterIncludedClassPositive() {
-		options.setIncludes("org.jacoco.core.*|org.jacoco.agent.rt.*");
+		options.setIncludes("org.jacoco.core.*:org.jacoco.agent.rt.*");
 		CoverageTransformer t = createTransformer();
 		assertTrue(t.filter(classLoader, "org/jacoco/core/Foo"));
 	}
 
 	@Test
 	public void testFilterIncludedClassNegative() {
-		options.setIncludes("org.jacoco.core.*|org.jacoco.agent.rt.*");
+		options.setIncludes("org.jacoco.core.*:org.jacoco.agent.rt.*");
 		CoverageTransformer t = createTransformer();
 		assertFalse(t.filter(classLoader, "org/jacoco/report/Foo"));
 	}
diff --git a/org.jacoco.agent.rt/src/org/jacoco/agent/rt/CoverageTransformer.java b/org.jacoco.agent.rt/src/org/jacoco/agent/rt/CoverageTransformer.java
index 67df84b..963c770 100644
--- a/org.jacoco.agent.rt/src/org/jacoco/agent/rt/CoverageTransformer.java
+++ b/org.jacoco.agent.rt/src/org/jacoco/agent/rt/CoverageTransformer.java
@@ -49,9 +49,9 @@
 		this.instrumenter = new Instrumenter(runtime);
 		this.logger = logger;
 		// Class names will be reported in VM notation:
-		includes = new WildcardMatcher(toVMName(options.getIncludes()));
-		excludes = new WildcardMatcher(toVMName(options.getExcludes()));
-		exclClassloader = new WildcardMatcher(options.getExclClassloader());
+		includes = new WildcardMatcher(toWildcard(toVMName(options.getIncludes())));
+		excludes = new WildcardMatcher(toWildcard(toVMName(options.getExcludes())));
+		exclClassloader = new WildcardMatcher(toWildcard(options.getExclClassloader()));
 	}
 
 	public byte[] transform(ClassLoader loader, String classname,
@@ -95,6 +95,14 @@
 		!excludes.matches(classname);
 	}
 
+	private String toWildcard(String src) {
+		if (src.indexOf('|') != -1) {
+			final IllegalArgumentException ex = new IllegalArgumentException("Usage of '|' as a list separator for JaCoCo agent options is deprecated and will not work in future versions - use ':' instead.");
+			logger.logExeption(ex);
+		}
+		return src.replace(':', '|');
+	}
+
 	private static String toVMName(String srcName) {
 		return srcName.replace('.', '/');
 	}
diff --git a/org.jacoco.build/pom.xml b/org.jacoco.build/pom.xml
index 1faf4ef..922d7cc 100644
--- a/org.jacoco.build/pom.xml
+++ b/org.jacoco.build/pom.xml
@@ -132,9 +132,9 @@
     <!-- Actually this is a dirty hack, but for now it's appropriate until we don't have jacoco-maven-plugin -->
     <jvm.args></jvm.args>
     <agent.path>${basedir}/../org.jacoco.agent.rt/target/org.jacoco.agent.rt-${project.version}-all.jar</agent.path>
-    <agent.exclclassloader>sun.reflect.DelegatingClassLoader|org.jacoco.core.test.TargetLoader</agent.exclclassloader>
+    <agent.exclclassloader>sun.reflect.DelegatingClassLoader:org.jacoco.core.test.TargetLoader</agent.exclclassloader>
     <agent.opts>destfile=${project.build.directory}/jacoco.exec,sessionid=${project.artifactId},exclclassloader=${agent.exclclassloader}</agent.opts>
-    <argLine>&quot;-javaagent:${agent.path}=${agent.opts} ${jvm.args}&quot;</argLine>
+    <argLine>-javaagent:${agent.path}=${agent.opts} ${jvm.args}</argLine>
     <tycho.testArgLine>${argLine}</tycho.testArgLine>
 
     <!-- Plugins versions -->
diff --git a/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/agent.html b/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/agent.html
index 7d110ca..fad164b 100644
--- a/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/agent.html
+++ b/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/agent.html
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@
     <tr>
       <td><code>includes</code></td>
       <td>A list of class names that should be included in execution analysis.
-          The list entries are separated by a vertical bar (<code>|</code>) and
+          The list entries are separated by a colon (<code>:</code>) and
           may use wildcard characters (<code>*</code> and <code>?</code>).
           Except for performance optimization or technical corner cases this
           option is normally not required. 
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@
     <tr>
       <td><code>excludes</code></td>
       <td>A list of class names that should be excluded from execution analysis.
-          The list entries are separated by a vertical bar (<code>|</code>) and
+          The list entries are separated by a colon (<code>:</code>) and
           may use wildcard characters (<code>*</code> and <code>?</code>).
           Except for performance optimization or technical corner cases this
           option is normally not required. 
@@ -101,8 +101,8 @@
     <tr>
       <td><code>exclclassloader</code></td>
       <td>A list of class loader names that should be excluded from execution
-          analysis. The list entries are separated by a vertical bar
-          (<code>|</code>) and may use wildcard characters (<code>*</code> and
+          analysis. The list entries are separated by a colon
+          (<code>:</code>) and may use wildcard characters (<code>*</code> and
           <code>?</code>). This option might be required in case of special
           frameworks that conflict with JaCoCo code instrumentation, in
           particular class loaders that do not have access to the Java runtime
diff --git a/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/ant.html b/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/ant.html
index 6152a45..8dd1571 100644
--- a/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/ant.html
+++ b/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/ant.html
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@
     <tr>
       <td><code>includes</code></td>
       <td>A list of class names that should be included in execution analysis.
-          The list entries are separated by a vertical bar (<code>|</code>) and
+          The list entries are separated by a colon (<code>:</code>) and
           may use wildcard characters (<code>*</code> and <code>?</code>).
           Except for performance optimization or technical corner cases this
           option is normally not required. 
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@
     <tr>
       <td><code>excludes</code></td>
       <td>A list of class names that should be excluded from execution analysis.
-          The list entries are separated by a vertical bar (<code>|</code>) and
+          The list entries are separated by a colon (<code>:</code>) and
           may use wildcard characters (<code>*</code> and <code>?</code>).
           Except for performance optimization or technical corner cases this
           option is normally not required. 
@@ -186,8 +186,8 @@
     <tr>
       <td><code>exclclassloader</code></td>
       <td>A list of class loader names, that should be excluded from execution
-          analysis. The list entries are separated by a vertical bar
-          (<code>|</code>) and may use wildcard characters (<code>*</code> and
+          analysis. The list entries are separated by a colon
+          (<code>:</code>) and may use wildcard characters (<code>*</code> and
           <code>?</code>). This option might be required in case of special
           frameworks that conflict with JaCoCo code instrumentation, in
           particular class loaders that do not have access to the Java runtime
diff --git a/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/changes.html b/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/changes.html
index 14d49f2..339c0fe 100644
--- a/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/changes.html
+++ b/org.jacoco.doc/docroot/doc/changes.html
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 <h3>API Changes</h3>
 <ul>
   <li>Simplified reporting API (Trac #53).</li>
+  <li>Use colon as separator character in agent parameters (Trac #143).</li>
 </ul>
 
 <h2>Release 0.5.0 (2011/01/19)</h2>