diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index a92c6453..98172d4c 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -22,9 +22,6 @@ DEB_HOST_ARCH       = $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH)
 
 OCAML_STDLIB_DIR    ?= $(shell ocamlc -where)
 
-export CC=gcc-$(GCC_VERSION)
-export CXX=g++-$(GCC_VERSION)
-
 LDFLAGS_EXTRA=
 CXXFLAGS_EXTRA=
 CONFIGURE_EXTRA=
@@ -33,6 +30,14 @@ ifneq (,$(filter $(DEB_HOST_ARCH),powerpc powerpcspe))
 LDFLAGS_EXTRA += -latomic
 endif
 
+ifeq ($(shell dpkg --compare-versions $(shell dpkg-query -W -f '$${Version}' g++-$(GCC_VERSION)) lt 4.7.2-10~ ; echo $$?),0)
+# Too old version of gcc. Force 4.8
+	GCC_VERSION := 4.8
+endif
+
+export CC=gcc-$(GCC_VERSION)
+export CXX=g++-$(GCC_VERSION)
+
 confargs := \
 	--host=$(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE) --build=$(DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE)
 
@@ -47,11 +52,6 @@ ifneq (,$(findstring $(DEB_HOST_ARCH),armel))
   opt_flags += -marm
 endif
 
-ifeq ($(shell dpkg --compare-versions $(shell dpkg-query -W -f '$${Version}' g++-$(GCC_VERSION)) lt 4.7.2-10~ ; echo $$?),0)
-# Too old version of gcc. Force 4.8
-	GCC_VERSION := 4.8
-endif
-
 ifeq ($(shell dpkg --compare-versions $(shell dpkg-query -W -f '$${Version}' g++-$(GCC_VERSION)) ge 4.8-20121128-1~ ; echo $$?),0)
 	control_vars = '-Vdep:devlibs=libstdc++-$(GCC_VERSION)-dev, libgcc-$(GCC_VERSION)-dev, libobjc-$(GCC_VERSION)-dev'
 else ifeq ($(shell dpkg --compare-versions $(shell dpkg-query -W -f '$${Version}' g++-$(GCC_VERSION)) ge 4.7.2-10~ ; echo $$?),0)