diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 6d87054..2fff495 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -552,8 +552,8 @@
 cleantar:
 	@(rm -f libxslt*.tar.gz)
 
-rpm: cleantar dist
-	rpm -ta $(distdir).tar.gz
+rpm: cleantar
+	@(unset CDPATH ; $(MAKE) dist && rpm -ta $(distdir).tar.gz)
 
 ## We create xml2Conf.sh here and not from configure because we want
 ## to get the paths expanded correctly.  Macros like srcdir are given