diff --git a/report_xls/report_xls.py b/report_xls/report_xls.py
index f36f38a8..347cb5e9 100644
--- a/report_xls/report_xls.py
+++ b/report_xls/report_xls.py
@@ -20,8 +20,6 @@
 #
 ##############################################################################
 
-import xlwt
-from xlwt.Style import default_style
 import cStringIO
 from datetime import datetime
 from openerp.osv.fields import datetime as datetime_field
@@ -33,6 +31,12 @@ from openerp import pooler
 import logging
 _logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+try:
+    import xlwt
+    from xlwt.Style import default_style
+except ImportError:
+    _logger.debug("Cannot import xlwt. This module will not be functional.")
+
 
 class AttrDict(dict):
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):