diff --git a/rakelib/maven.rake b/rakelib/maven.rake
index 8470686ad3d..b82271cb753 100644
--- a/rakelib/maven.rake
+++ b/rakelib/maven.rake
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+#-*- mode: ruby -*-
 
 require 'fileutils'
 
@@ -9,22 +10,41 @@ def maven_retrieve_pom_version
   raise Errno::ENOENT.new "Cannot find project pom.xml"
 end
 
+def maven
+  unless @__maven__
+    require 'maven/ruby/maven'
+    @__maven__ = Maven::Ruby::Maven.new
+    @__maven__.embedded = true
+  end
+  @__maven__
+rescue LoadError => e
+  warn 'make sure you have ruby-maven gem installed'
+  raise e
+end
+
 namespace :maven do
+
+  desc "Dump pom.xml files"
+  task :dump_poms do
+    maven.validate( '-Pall' )
+  end
+
+  desc "Set new version"
+  task :set_version => [:do_set_version, :dump_poms ]
+
+  task :do_set_version do
+    version = readline
+    version.strip!
+    File.open( '../VERSION', 'w' ) { |f| f.print version }
+  end
+
   desc "Prepare for the release"
-  task :prepare_release do
-    system "mvn versions:set"
-    system "mvn clean install -Pall"
-    tree = File.expand_path(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), '..', 'target', 'tree.txt') )
-    FileUtils.mkdir_p( File.dirname( tree ) )
-    FileUtils.rm_f( tree )
-    system "mvn dependency:tree -Doutput=#{tree} -DappendOutput"
-    deps = File.read( tree )
-    raise "found SNAPSHOTS #{deps}" if deps.match 'SNAPSHOT'
+  task :prepare_release => :do_set_version do
+    maven.exec( :clean, :install, '-Prelease' )
   end
 
   desc "Deploy release and bump version"
   task :deploy_release do
     system "mvn clean deploy -Psonatype-oss-release,release"
-    system "mvn versions:set"
   end
 end