diff --git a/icu.spec b/icu.spec
index e276a1c..148687d 100644
--- a/icu.spec
+++ b/icu.spec
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 
 %define tarballver %(echo %{version}|sed -e 's|\\.|_|g')
 %bcond_with crosscompile
+%bcond_with tests
 
 Summary:	International Components for Unicode
 Name:		icu
@@ -243,10 +244,6 @@ unset TARGET
 %make doc
 popd
 
-%check
-pushd source
-make check
-popd
 
 %install
 %if %{with crosscompile}
@@ -254,3 +251,11 @@ unset TARGET
 %endif
 %makeinstall_std -C source
 
+
+%if %{with tests}
+%check
+pushd source
+make check
+popd
+%endif
+