diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 0009ae9..4513d1e 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ CHANGES
 3.7.4 (unreleased)
 ------------------
 
+- In version 3.7.2 msgids and default values where forced to be
+  unicodes. This was too strict because at least the TAL extractor returns
+  UTF-8 encoded default values. Fixed this by allowing the default value to
+  be a string again.
 
 
 3.7.3 (2012-01-06)
diff --git a/src/zope/app/locales/extract.py b/src/zope/app/locales/extract.py
index a9fab41..b2e5a5f 100644
--- a/src/zope/app/locales/extract.py
+++ b/src/zope/app/locales/extract.py
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ class POTEntry(object):
     msgstr ""
     <BLANKLINE>
 
-    Unicode can be used in msgids and default values
+    Unicode can be used in msgids and default values:
 
     >>> entry = POTEntry(Message(u"\u263B", default=u"\u253A"))
     >>> entry.write(FakeFile())
@@ -106,6 +106,16 @@ class POTEntry(object):
     msgstr ""
     <BLANKLINE>
 
+    But msgid might be an ascii encoded string and `default` might be a
+    string with the DEFAULT_ENCODING, too:
+
+    >>> entry = POTEntry(Message("Oe", default="\xd6"))
+    >>> entry.write(FakeFile())
+    #. Default: "\326"
+    msgid "Oe"
+    msgstr ""
+    <BLANKLINE>
+
     """
 
     implements(IPOTEntry)
@@ -130,7 +140,9 @@ def write(self, file):
             file.write('#: %s:%s\n' % (filename, line))
         if (isinstance(self.msgid, Message) and
             self.msgid.default is not None):
-            default = self.msgid.default.strip().encode(DEFAULT_CHARSET)
+            default = self.msgid.default.strip()
+            if isinstance(default, unicode):
+                default = default.encode(DEFAULT_CHARSET)
             lines = normalize(default).split("\n")
             lines[0] = "#. Default: %s\n" % lines[0]
             for i in range(1, len(lines)):
@@ -181,7 +193,7 @@ def _getProductVersion(self):
 
     def write(self):
         file = open(self._output_filename, 'w')
-        file.write(pot_header % {'time':     time.ctime(), 
+        file.write(pot_header % {'time':     time.ctime(),
                                  'version':  self._getProductVersion(),
                                  'charset':  DEFAULT_CHARSET,
                                  'encoding': DEFAULT_ENCODING})