diff --git a/src/simplejson/setup.py b/src/simplejson/setup.py
index efc4454bd..01d1e4335 100644
--- a/src/simplejson/setup.py
+++ b/src/simplejson/setup.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
 import ez_setup
-ez_setup.use_setuptools(min_version="0.6c3")
+ez_setup.use_setuptools(min_version="0.6a9")
 
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages, Extension, Feature
 from distutils.command.build_ext import build_ext