diff --git a/python/plugins/sextante/modeler/ModelerDialog.py b/python/plugins/sextante/modeler/ModelerDialog.py
index e034fd64527e..2554c4f559ee 100644
--- a/python/plugins/sextante/modeler/ModelerDialog.py
+++ b/python/plugins/sextante/modeler/ModelerDialog.py
@@ -126,6 +126,13 @@ def editHelp(self):
 
     def runModel(self):
         ##TODO: enable alg cloning without saving to file
+        if (len(self.alg.algs) == 0) or (len(self.algParameters) == 0):
+            QMessageBox.warning(self,
+                                self.tr("Empty model"),
+                                self.tr("Model doesn't contains any algorithms and/or parameters and can't be executed")
+                               )
+            return
+
         if self.alg.descriptionFile is None:
             self.alg.descriptionFile = SextanteUtils.getTempFilename("model")
             text = self.alg.serialize()