diff --git a/lib/mkmf.rb b/lib/mkmf.rb
index 146225d..076b388 100644
--- a/lib/mkmf.rb
+++ b/lib/mkmf.rb
@@ -1747,6 +1747,7 @@ SRC
       # default to package specific config command, as a last resort.
       get = proc {|opt| `#{pkgconfig} --#{opt}`.strip}
     end
+    orig_ldflags = $LDFLAGS
     if get and option
       get[option]
     elsif get and try_ldflags(ldflags = get['libs'])
@@ -1754,7 +1755,7 @@ SRC
       libs = get['libs-only-l']
       ldflags = (Shellwords.shellwords(ldflags) - Shellwords.shellwords(libs)).quote.join(" ")
       $CFLAGS += " " << cflags
-      $LDFLAGS += " " << ldflags
+      $LDFLAGS = [orig_ldflags, ldflags, libs].join(' ')
       $libs += " " << libs
       Logging::message "package configuration for %s\n", pkg
       Logging::message "cflags: %s\nldflags: %s\nlibs: %s\n\n",