diff --git a/Doc/ext/extending.tex b/Doc/ext/extending.tex
index 0051a02..d77a714 100644
--- a/Doc/ext/extending.tex
+++ b/Doc/ext/extending.tex
@@ -669,6 +669,8 @@
 \item[\samp{u\#} (Unicode object) {[Py_UNICODE *, int]}]
 This variant on \samp{u} stores into two C variables, the first one
 a pointer to a Unicode data buffer, the second one its length.
+Non-Unicode objects are handled by interpreting their read buffer
+pointer as pointer to a Py_UNICODE array.
 
 \item[\samp{es} (string, Unicode object or character buffer compatible
 object) {[const char *encoding, char **buffer]}]
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 1912dc2..4429f8e 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -28,6 +28,9 @@
 
 C API
 
+- The "u#" parser marker will now pass through Unicode object as-is
+  without going through the buffer API.
+
 - The enumerators of cmp_op have been renamed to use the prefix PyCmp_.
 
 - An old #define of ANY as void has been removed from pyport.h.  This
diff --git a/Modules/_testcapimodule.c b/Modules/_testcapimodule.c
index 0f5fa7c..824ae87 100644
--- a/Modules/_testcapimodule.c
+++ b/Modules/_testcapimodule.c
@@ -307,6 +307,53 @@
 
 #endif	/* ifdef HAVE_LONG_LONG */
 
+#ifdef Py_USING_UNICODE
+
+/* Test the u and u# codes for PyArg_ParseTuple. May leak memory in case
+   of an error.
+*/
+static PyObject *
+test_u_code(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
+{
+	PyObject *tuple, *obj;
+	Py_UNICODE *value;
+	int len;
+
+        if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, ":test_u_code"))
+                return NULL;
+
+        tuple = PyTuple_New(1);
+        if (tuple == NULL)
+        	return NULL;
+
+        obj = PyUnicode_Decode("test", strlen("test"),
+			       "ascii", NULL);
+        if (obj == NULL)
+        	return NULL;
+
+        PyTuple_SET_ITEM(tuple, 0, obj);
+
+        value = 0;
+        if (PyArg_ParseTuple(tuple, "u:test_u_code", &value) < 0)
+        	return NULL;
+        if (value != PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(obj))
+        	return raiseTestError("test_u_code",
+			"u code returned wrong value for u'test'");
+        value = 0;
+        if (PyArg_ParseTuple(tuple, "u#:test_u_code", &value, &len) < 0)
+        	return NULL;
+        if (value != PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(obj) ||
+	    len != PyUnicode_GET_SIZE(obj))
+        	return raiseTestError("test_u_code",
+			"u# code returned wrong values for u'test'");
+	
+	Py_DECREF(tuple);
+	Py_INCREF(Py_None);
+	return Py_None;
+}
+
+#endif
+
 static PyObject *
 raise_exception(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
 {
@@ -343,6 +390,9 @@
 	{"test_longlong_api",	test_longlong_api,	METH_VARARGS},
 	{"test_L_code",		test_L_code,		METH_VARARGS},
 #endif
+#ifdef Py_USING_UNICODE
+	{"test_u_code",		test_u_code,		METH_VARARGS},
+#endif
 	{NULL, NULL} /* sentinel */
 };
 
diff --git a/Python/getargs.c b/Python/getargs.c
index 9df2a2e..411c695 100644
--- a/Python/getargs.c
+++ b/Python/getargs.c
@@ -838,16 +838,20 @@
 		if (*format == '#') { /* any buffer-like object */
 			void **p = (void **)va_arg(*p_va, char **);
 			int *q = va_arg(*p_va, int *);
+			if (PyUnicode_Check(arg)) {
+			    	*p = PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(arg);
+				*q = PyUnicode_GET_SIZE(arg);
+			}
+			else {
 			char *buf;
 			int count = convertbuffer(arg, p, &buf);
-
 			if (count < 0)
 				return converterr(buf, arg, msgbuf, bufsize);
 			*q = count/(sizeof(Py_UNICODE)); 
+			}
 			format++;
 		} else {
 			Py_UNICODE **p = va_arg(*p_va, Py_UNICODE **);
-			
 			if (PyUnicode_Check(arg))
 				*p = PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(arg);
 			else