diff --git a/easybuild/easyblocks/q/qt.py b/easybuild/easyblocks/q/qt.py
index cefa4b471e..cff7b5c1b3 100644
--- a/easybuild/easyblocks/q/qt.py
+++ b/easybuild/easyblocks/q/qt.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 from easybuild.easyblocks.generic.configuremake import ConfigureMake
 from easybuild.framework.easyconfig import CUSTOM
 from easybuild.tools.build_log import EasyBuildError
+from easybuild.tools.filetools import apply_regex_substitutions
 from easybuild.tools.run import run_cmd_qa
 from easybuild.tools.systemtools import get_shared_lib_ext
 
@@ -62,7 +63,13 @@ def configure_step(self):
         elif comp_fam in [toolchain.GCC]:  #@UndefinedVariable
             platform = 'linux-g++-64'
         elif comp_fam in [toolchain.INTELCOMP]:  #@UndefinedVariable
-            platform = 'linux-icc-64'
+            if LooseVersion(self.version) >= LooseVersion('4'):
+                platform = 'linux-icc-64'
+            else:
+                platform = 'linux-icc'
+                # fix -fPIC flag (-KPIC is not correct for recent Intel compilers)
+                qmake_conf = os.path.join('mkspecs', platform, 'qmake.conf')
+                apply_regex_substitutions(qmake_conf, [('-KPIC', '-fPIC')])
                 
         if platform:
             self.cfg.update('configopts', "-platform %s" % platform)
@@ -102,13 +109,21 @@ def build_step(self):
     def sanity_check_step(self):
         """Custom sanity check for Qt."""
 
-        libversion = ''
-        if LooseVersion(self.version) >= LooseVersion('5'):
-            libversion = self.version.split('.')[0]
+        shlib_ext = get_shared_lib_ext()
+
+        if LooseVersion(self.version) >= LooseVersion('4'):
+            libversion = ''
+            if LooseVersion(self.version) >= LooseVersion('5'):
+                libversion = self.version.split('.')[0]
+
+            libfile = os.path.join('lib', 'libQt%sCore.%s' % (libversion, shlib_ext))
+
+        else:
+            libfile = os.path.join('lib', 'libqt.%s' % shlib_ext)
 
         custom_paths = {
-            'files': ["lib/libQt%sCore.%s" % (libversion, get_shared_lib_ext())],
-            'dirs': ["bin", "include", "plugins"],
+            'files': [libfile],
+            'dirs': ['bin', 'include', 'plugins'],
         }
 
         super(EB_Qt, self).sanity_check_step(custom_paths=custom_paths)