diff --git a/etemplate/inc/class.url_widget.inc.php b/etemplate/inc/class.url_widget.inc.php
index 02854bf693..cb75e62ef2 100644
--- a/etemplate/inc/class.url_widget.inc.php
+++ b/etemplate/inc/class.url_widget.inc.php
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ class url_widget
 	 *
 	 * has to be used case insensitive: /i
 	 */
-	const EMAIL_PREG = '[a-z0-9][a-z0-9._-]*[a-z0-9]@(([a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9]\.)|([a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]*[a-z0-9]\.))+[a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]*[a-z0-9]';
+	const EMAIL_PREG = '([a-z0-9][a-z0-9._-]*)?[a-z0-9]@(([a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9]\.)|([a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]*[a-z0-9]\.))+[a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]*[a-z0-9]';
 
 	/**
 	 * pre-processing of the extension