diff --git a/configure.ac.in b/configure.ac.in
index 3b82434b..1207dcc5 100644
--- a/configure.ac.in
+++ b/configure.ac.in
@@ -810,15 +810,6 @@ AC_CHECK_MEMBER([struct statfs.f_fstypename],
                  [],
                  [#include <sys/statfs.h>])
 
-dnl
-dnl Check for zlib
-dnl
-
-AC_CHECK_HEADER(zlib.h,
-		[],
-		[AC_MSG_ERROR([zlib is missing; please install the headers first])])
-
-
 dnl
 dnl Check for OpenMP support
 dnl