diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d2c8869..ffbc642 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -72,6 +72,10 @@ init system when libvirtd is started - quotes will be added
 an explicit connection URI will not be set when calling virsh or any of
 the virt_ ansible modules.
 
+`libvirt_host_python3`: Whether the python3 version of the libvirt python
+bindings should be installed. If `false`, the python 2 bindings will be
+installed.
+
 Dependencies
 ------------
 
diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index eca224f..0f32b67 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -61,3 +61,9 @@ libvirt_host_uri: >-
   {%- if libvirt_host_socket_dir -%}
   qemu+unix:///system?socket={{ libvirt_host_socket_dir }}/libvirt-sock
   {%- endif %}
+
+# Whether the python3 version of the libvirt python bindings should be
+# installed. If false, the python 2 bindings will be installed.
+libvirt_host_python3: >-
+  {{ (ansible_os_family == 'RedHat' and ansible_distribution_major_version|int >= 8) or
+     ansible_python_interpreter | basename is match('python3.*') }}
diff --git a/vars/Debian.yml b/vars/Debian.yml
index 7353d0b..49e5cea 100644
--- a/vars/Debian.yml
+++ b/vars/Debian.yml
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
 # List of package dependencies common to all Debian distributions
 libvirt_host_libvirt_packages_common:
   - qemu-kvm
-  - python-libvirt
-  - python-lxml
+  - "{{ 'python3-libvirt' if libvirt_host_python3 | bool else 'python-libvirt' }}"
+  - "{{ 'python3-lxml' if libvirt_host_python3 | bool else 'python-lxml' }}"
 
 # Package that contains the libvirt daemon
 libvirt_host_libvirt_packages_libvirt_daemon: >-
diff --git a/vars/RedHat.yml b/vars/RedHat.yml
index 5ce175d..b0c501d 100644
--- a/vars/RedHat.yml
+++ b/vars/RedHat.yml
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 libvirt_host_libvirt_packages_default:
   - libvirt
   - libvirt-daemon-kvm
-  - "{{ 'python3-libvirt' if ansible_distribution_major_version|int >=8 else 'libvirt-python' }}"
-  - "{{ 'python3-lxml' if ansible_distribution_major_version|int >=8 else 'python-lxml' }}"
+  - "{{ 'python3-libvirt' if libvirt_host_python3 | bool else 'libvirt-python' }}"
+  - "{{ 'python3-lxml' if libvirt_host_python3 | bool else 'python-lxml' }}"
   - qemu-kvm
 
 # Packages that are only necessary if you require EFI support