diff -urN gtk+2.0-2.18.5.orig/debian/changelog gtk+2.0-2.18.5/debian/changelog
--- gtk+2.0-2.18.5.orig/debian/changelog	2009-12-18 15:01:06.000000000 -0800
+++ gtk+2.0-2.18.5/debian/changelog	2009-12-18 15:06:53.000000000 -0800
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+gtk+2.0 (2.18.5-1.1) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Allow inheriting GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS.
+
+ -- Petr Vandrovec <petr@vandrovec.name>  Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:06:48 -0800
+
 gtk+2.0 (2.18.5-1) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * New upstream bugfix release.
diff -urN gtk+2.0-2.18.5.orig/gdk/gdk.c gtk+2.0-2.18.5/gdk/gdk.c
--- gtk+2.0-2.18.5.orig/gdk/gdk.c	2009-12-18 15:01:06.000000000 -0800
+++ gtk+2.0-2.18.5/gdk/gdk.c	2009-12-18 15:05:57.000000000 -0800
@@ -187,6 +187,8 @@
 void
 gdk_pre_parse_libgtk_only (void)
 {
+  char *nativeWindows;
+
   gdk_initialized = TRUE;
 
   /* We set the fallback program class here, rather than lazily in
@@ -206,12 +208,16 @@
   }
 #endif	/* G_ENABLE_DEBUG */
 
-  if (getenv ("GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS"))
+  nativeWindows = getenv ("GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS");
+  if (nativeWindows)
     {
       _gdk_native_windows = TRUE;
       /* Ensure that this is not propagated
-	 to spawned applications */
-      g_unsetenv ("GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS");
+	 to spawned applications unless 'inherit' is used */
+      if (strcmp (nativeWindows, "inherit"))
+        {
+          g_unsetenv ("GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS");
+        }
     }
 
   g_type_init ();