diff --git a/product/ERP5OOo/Document/OOoDocument.py b/product/ERP5OOo/Document/OOoDocument.py
index 662ad396b47f2197e5da3fe74d8fb2d2601a6a7d..0dec8f00f7b378ee8c193fea747aa64e9055e032 100644
--- a/product/ERP5OOo/Document/OOoDocument.py
+++ b/product/ERP5OOo/Document/OOoDocument.py
@@ -65,6 +65,13 @@ class TimeoutTransport(SafeTransport):
   def __init__(self, timeout=None, scheme='http'):
     self._timeout = timeout
     self._scheme = scheme
+    # On Python 2.6, .__init__() of Transport and SafeTransport must be called
+    # to set up the ._use_datetime attribute.
+    # sigh... too bad we can't use super() here, as SafeTransport is not
+    # a new-style class (as of Python 2.4 to 2.6)
+    # remove the gettattr below when we drop support for Python 2.4
+    super__init__ = getattr(SafeTransport, '__init__', lambda self: None)
+    super__init__(self)
 
   def send_content(self, connection, request_body):
     connection.putheader("Content-Type", "text/xml")