diff --git a/ide/nbproject/ide-targets.xml b/ide/nbproject/ide-targets.xml
index 7308c504a..a6a53bb15 100644
--- a/ide/nbproject/ide-targets.xml
+++ b/ide/nbproject/ide-targets.xml
@@ -18,38 +18,59 @@
             <sourcepath refid="project.source.path"/>
         </nbjpdastart>
 
-        <!-- warning! fork=true prevents debug break points latching... -->
-        <java fork="false"
+        <!-- we allow users to pass command line args using the "args" system
+             property. However we need to manually set that prop to an empty
+             string here (in the normal case the user will not have defined
+             any - otherwise the application would find an argument with
+             the value ${args} )-->
+        <property name="args" value=""/>
+
+        <!-- fork=true no longer prevents debug break points latching... -->
+        <java fork="true"
               classname="net.java.sip.communicator.launcher.SIPCommunicator"
               failonerror="true">
             <classpath  refid="debug.class.path"/>
+
+            <jvmarg value="-Xdebug"/>
+            <jvmarg value="-Xnoagent"/>
+            <jvmarg value="-Djava.compiler=none"/>
+            <jvmarg value="-Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=${jpda.address}"/>
+
             <!-- Sets the charset for the messages -->
             <!--sysproperty key="icq.custom.message.charset" value="windows-1252"/-->
             <!-- Tell felix to run sip-communicator-->
             <sysproperty key="felix.config.properties"
                          value="file:${lib}/felix.client.run.properties"/>
+
             <!-- Tell java.util.logging about our logging preferences -->
             <sysproperty key="java.util.logging.config.file"
                          value="${lib}/logging.properties"/>
+
             <sysproperty key="java.net.preferIPv6Addresses"
                          value="false"/>
+
             <!--sysproperty key="net.java.sip.communicator.SC_HOME_DIR_LOCATION"
                     value="${user.home}/schome"/-->
+
             <!-- Setting properties necessary for dependencies on native libs.-->
             <sysproperty key="java.library.path"
                          path="${ld.library.path}:${path}:${dyld.library.path}"/>
+
             <!-- pass l10n properties from ant call for
                  easy translation debugging -->
             <sysproperty key="user.language" value="${user.language}"/>
             <sysproperty key="user.country" value="${user.country}"/>
             <sysproperty key="user.variant" value="${user.variant}"/>
+
             <env key="LD_LIBRARY_PATH" path="${ld.library.path}"/>
             <env key="PATH" path="${path}"/>
             <env key="DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH" path="${dyld.library.path}"/>
-            <jvmarg value="-Xdebug"/>
-            <jvmarg value="-Xnoagent"/>
-            <jvmarg value="-Djava.compiler=none"/>
-            <jvmarg value="-Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=${jpda.address}"/>
+
+            <!-- make sure that we automatically enable system.out when running
+                 SIP Communicator from Ant-->
+            <arg line="--debug"/>
+            <!-- pass to SC args that have been specified by the user -->
+            <arg line="${args}"/>
         </java>
     </target>