diff --git a/reactos/tools/rbuild/project.cpp b/reactos/tools/rbuild/project.cpp
index 00ab3ab50a2..e74e44f4f4d 100644
--- a/reactos/tools/rbuild/project.cpp
+++ b/reactos/tools/rbuild/project.cpp
@@ -227,6 +227,9 @@ Project::ReadXml ()
 		}
 	}
 
+	if (node == NULL)
+		node = head->subElements[0];
+
 	throw InvalidBuildFileException (
 		node->location,
 		"Document contains no 'project' tag." );