diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 24c45f8913f8d95e48ee7ef48372b672add0a938..1d26921cf47452b4cfeca008b184a3e89f2b737d 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Package: pbuilder
 Architecture: all
 Multi-Arch: foreign
 Depends:
- debootstrap | cdebootstrap,
+ debootstrap (>= 1.0.97) | cdebootstrap,
  dpkg-dev (>= 1.17.0),
  ${misc:Depends},
 Recommends:
diff --git a/pbuilder-createbuildenv b/pbuilder-createbuildenv
index 07acc98ef0db54610e02bbbb5623dc244484bda2..9d4381e12fcaad71ac4ab1673ba88b2252bcfbee 100755
--- a/pbuilder-createbuildenv
+++ b/pbuilder-createbuildenv
@@ -64,12 +64,18 @@ else
     exit 1
 fi
 
+# use cache for debootstrap
+if [ -n "$APTCACHE" ] && [ "${DEBOOTSTRAP}" = debootstrap -o "${DEBOOTSTRAP}" = qemu-debootstrap ]; then
+    USE_CACHE="--cache-dir=$APTCACHE"
+fi
+
 # FIXME if the end-user passes another --include= to debootstrap in
 # DEBOOTSTRAPOPTS, it will override the --include=apt one and apt might not be
 # installed
 if ! ( "${DEBOOTSTRAP}" \
     ${ARCHITECTURE:+--arch=$ARCHITECTURE} \
     --include=apt \
+    "$USE_CACHE" \
     "${DEBOOTSTRAPOPTS[@]}" \
     "$DISTRIBUTION" \
     "$BUILDPLACE" \