diff --git a/package/Makefile.in b/package/Makefile.in
index 02ddaa716..490a960e9 100644
--- a/package/Makefile.in
+++ b/package/Makefile.in
@@ -232,6 +232,17 @@ HOST_LDFLAGS  += -L$(HOST_DIR)/lib -L$(HOST_DIR)/usr/lib -Wl,-rpath,$(HOST_DIR)/
 HOSTCC_VERSION := $(shell $(HOSTCC_NOCCACHE) --version | \
 	sed -n 's/^.* \([0-9]*\)\.\([0-9]*\)\.\([0-9]*\)[ ]*.*$$/\1\2\3/p')
 
+# host-intltool should be executed with the system perl, so we save
+# the path to the system perl, before a host-perl built by Buildroot
+# might get installed into $(HOST_DIR)/usr/bin and therefore appears
+# in our PATH. This system perl will be used as INTLTOOL_PERL.
+export PERL=$(shell which perl)
+
+# host-intltool needs libxml-parser-perl, which Buildroot installs in
+# $(HOST_DIR)/usr/lib/perl, so we must make sure that the system perl
+# finds this perl module by exporting the proper value for PERL5LIB.
+export PERL5LIB=$(HOST_DIR)/usr/lib/perl
+
 TARGET_CONFIGURE_OPTS = PATH=$(BR_PATH) \
 		AR="$(TARGET_AR)" \
 		AS="$(TARGET_AS)" \
@@ -267,7 +278,8 @@ TARGET_CONFIGURE_OPTS = PATH=$(BR_PATH) \
 		LDFLAGS="$(TARGET_LDFLAGS)" \
 		FCFLAGS="$(TARGET_FCFLAGS)" \
 		PKG_CONFIG="$(PKG_CONFIG_HOST_BINARY)" \
-		STAGING_DIR="$(STAGING_DIR)"
+		STAGING_DIR="$(STAGING_DIR)" \
+		INTLTOOL_PERL=$(PERL)
 
 TARGET_MAKE_ENV = PATH=$(BR_PATH)
 
@@ -292,7 +304,8 @@ HOST_CONFIGURE_OPTS = PATH=$(BR_PATH) \
 		PKG_CONFIG="$(PKG_CONFIG_HOST_BINARY)" \
 		PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR="/" \
 		PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR="$(HOST_DIR)/usr/lib/pkgconfig:$(HOST_DIR)/usr/share/pkgconfig" \
-		LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$(HOST_DIR)/usr/lib:$(LD_LIBRARY_PATH)"
+		LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$(HOST_DIR)/usr/lib:$(LD_LIBRARY_PATH)" \
+		INTLTOOL_PERL=$(PERL)
 
 HOST_MAKE_ENV = PATH=$(BR_PATH) \
 		LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$(HOST_DIR)/usr/lib:$(LD_LIBRARY_PATH)" \
diff --git a/package/intltool/intltool.mk b/package/intltool/intltool.mk
index a7afe0da0..549cb3b2f 100644
--- a/package/intltool/intltool.mk
+++ b/package/intltool/intltool.mk
@@ -10,9 +10,6 @@ INTLTOOL_LICENSE = GPLv2+
 INTLTOOL_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING
 
 HOST_INTLTOOL_DEPENDENCIES = host-gettext host-libxml-parser-perl
-HOST_INTLTOOL_CONF_OPTS = \
-	PERL=`which perl` \
-	PERL5LIB=$(HOST_DIR)/usr/lib/perl
 
 $(eval $(autotools-package))
 $(eval $(host-autotools-package))
diff --git a/package/pkg-perl.mk b/package/pkg-perl.mk
index f41a2f9ae..6577588db 100644
--- a/package/pkg-perl.mk
+++ b/package/pkg-perl.mk
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 ################################################################################
 
 PERL_ARCHNAME = $(ARCH)-linux
-PERL_RUN = $(HOST_DIR)/usr/bin/perl
+PERL_RUN = PERL5LIB= $(HOST_DIR)/usr/bin/perl
 
 ################################################################################
 # inner-perl-package -- defines how the configuration, compilation and