diff --git a/Lib/httplib.py b/Lib/httplib.py
index 5d16e53..98296dc 100644
--- a/Lib/httplib.py
+++ b/Lib/httplib.py
@@ -989,7 +989,7 @@
 
         self.putrequest(method, url, **skips)
 
-        if body and ('content-length' not in header_names):
+        if body is not None and 'content-length' not in header_names:
             self._set_content_length(body)
         for hdr, value in headers.iteritems():
             self.putheader(hdr, value)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_httplib.py b/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
index 05df875..5b5ae2e 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
@@ -90,6 +90,34 @@
                 conn.request('POST', '/', body, headers)
                 self.assertEqual(conn._buffer.count[header.lower()], 1)
 
+    def test_content_length_0(self):
+
+        class ContentLengthChecker(list):
+            def __init__(self):
+                list.__init__(self)
+                self.content_length = None
+            def append(self, item):
+                kv = item.split(':', 1)
+                if len(kv) > 1 and kv[0].lower() == 'content-length':
+                    self.content_length = kv[1].strip()
+                list.append(self, item)
+
+        # POST with empty body
+        conn = httplib.HTTPConnection('example.com')
+        conn.sock = FakeSocket(None)
+        conn._buffer = ContentLengthChecker()
+        conn.request('POST', '/', '')
+        self.assertEqual(conn._buffer.content_length, '0',
+                        'Header Content-Length not set')
+
+        # PUT request with empty body
+        conn = httplib.HTTPConnection('example.com')
+        conn.sock = FakeSocket(None)
+        conn._buffer = ContentLengthChecker()
+        conn.request('PUT', '/', '')
+        self.assertEqual(conn._buffer.content_length, '0',
+                        'Header Content-Length not set')
+
     def test_putheader(self):
         conn = httplib.HTTPConnection('example.com')
         conn.sock = FakeSocket(None)