diff --git a/src/runtime/java/Makefile b/src/runtime/java/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..596735f11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/runtime/java/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+all:
+	libtool --mode=compile gcc -I /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/include -std=c99 -c jpgf.c
+	libtool --mode=link gcc -g -O -o libjpgf.la jpgf.lo -rpath /usr/lib -lpgf -lgu 
+	libtool --mode=install cp libjpgf.la /usr/lib/libjpgf.la
+
+headers:
+	javah org.grammaticalframework.PGF
diff --git a/src/runtime/java/jpgf.c b/src/runtime/java/jpgf.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4796e32dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/runtime/java/jpgf.c
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#include <pgf/pgf.h>
+#include <gu/mem.h>
+#include "org_grammaticalframework_PGF.h"
+
+JNIEXPORT jobject JNICALL 
+Java_org_grammaticalframework_PGF_readPGF(JNIEnv *env, jclass cls, jstring s)
+{
+	const char *fpath = (*env)->GetStringUTFChars(env, s, 0); 
+ 
+	GuPool* pool = gu_new_pool();
+	GuPool* tmp_pool = gu_local_pool();
+
+	// Create an exception frame that catches all errors.
+	GuExn* err = gu_new_exn(NULL, gu_kind(type), tmp_pool);
+
+	// Read the PGF grammar.
+	PgfPGF* pgf = pgf_read(fpath, pool, err);
+	if (!gu_ok(err)) {
+		gu_pool_free(pool);
+		gu_pool_free(tmp_pool);
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	gu_pool_free(tmp_pool);
+
+	(*env)->ReleaseStringUTFChars(env, s, fpath);
+
+	jmethodID constrId = (*env)->GetMethodID(env, cls, "<init>", "(II)V");
+
+	return (*env)->NewObject(env, cls, constrId, (int) pool, (int) pgf);
+}
diff --git a/src/runtime/java/org/grammaticalframework/PGF.java b/src/runtime/java/org/grammaticalframework/PGF.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..777edbd98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/runtime/java/org/grammaticalframework/PGF.java
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+package org.grammaticalframework;
+
+public class PGF {
+	static native PGF readPGF(String path); 
+
+	private int pool;
+	private int gr;
+	
+	private PGF(int pool, int gr) {
+		this.pool = pool;
+		this.gr   = gr;
+	}
+	
+	static { 
+         System.loadLibrary("jpgf");
+    }
+    
+    public void test() {
+		System.out.println("pool="+pool+", gr="+gr);
+	}
+	
+    public static void main(String[] args) {
+		readPGF("/home/krasimir/www.grammaticalframework.org/treebanks/PennTreebank/ParseEngAbs.pgf").test();
+	}
+}