diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 64a96d0a861a..a3ee55e462b2 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -12,4 +12,4 @@ nova.egg-info
 .venv
 *.sqlite
 *.log
-po/*.pot
\ No newline at end of file
+po/*.pot
diff --git a/babel.cfg b/babel.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..15cd6cb76b93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/babel.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[python: **.py]
+
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index d53addcbf355..18179b1520fe 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -7,3 +7,26 @@ source-dir = doc/source
 tag_build = 
 tag_date = 0
 tag_svn_revision = 0
+
+[compile_catalog]
+directory = locale
+domain = nova
+
+[update_catalog]
+domain = nova
+output_dir = po
+input_file = po/nova.pot
+
+[extract_messages]
+keywords = _ gettext ngettext
+mapping_file = babel.cfg
+output_file = po/nova.pot
+
+[nosetests]
+verbosity=2
+detailed-errors=1
+with-openstack=1
+openstack-red=0.05
+openstack-yellow=0.025
+openstack-show-elapsed=1
+openstack-color=1
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 1276e0aee41c..ec784d91f0bb 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -16,26 +16,12 @@
 #    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
 #    under the License.
 
-import gettext
 import glob
 import os
 
 from setuptools import find_packages
 
-# In order to run the i18n commands for compiling and
-# installing message catalogs, we use DistUtilsExtra.
-# Don't make this a hard requirement, but warn that
-# i18n commands won't be available if DistUtilsExtra is
-# not installed...
-try:
-    from DistUtilsExtra.auto import setup
-except ImportError:
-    from setuptools import setup
-    print "Warning: DistUtilsExtra required to use i18n builders. "
-    print "To build nova with support for message catalogs, you need "
-    print "  https://launchpad.net/python-distutils-extra >= 2.18"
-
-gettext.install('nova', unicode=1)
+from setuptools import setup
 
 from nova import version
 
diff --git a/tools/pip-requires b/tools/pip-requires
index 409e58bd5fb9..2b691ad73910 100644
--- a/tools/pip-requires
+++ b/tools/pip-requires
@@ -32,3 +32,4 @@ nosexcover
 paramiko
 feedparser
 pycrypto
+Babel>=0.9.6