diff --git a/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Config.pm b/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Config.pm
index 4135536d3..f5921c03f 100644
--- a/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Config.pm
+++ b/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Config.pm
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ our %EXPORT_TAGS = ( internal => [ qw( create_temp_script
 				       pop_open
 				       push_params
 				       pop_params
+				       default_params
 				       read_a_line
 				       validate_level
 				       which
@@ -1808,6 +1809,16 @@ sub pop_params( $ ) {
     %actparms = %$oldparms;
 }
 
+sub default_params {
+    my $val;
+
+    for ( my $i = 1; 1; $i++ ) {
+	last unless defined ( $val = shift );
+	my $curval = $actparms{$i};
+	$actparms{$i} =$val eq '-' ? '' : $val eq '--' ? '-' : $val unless defined $curval && $curval ne '';
+    }
+}
+
 #
 # Read a line from the current include stack.
 #
diff --git a/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Rules.pm b/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Rules.pm
index 0b8d80519..fdfbc0d91 100644
--- a/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Rules.pm
+++ b/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Rules.pm
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ my @builtins;
 #
 # Commands that can be embedded in a basic rule and how many total tokens on the line (0 => unlimited).
 #
-my $rule_commands = { COMMENT => 0, FORMAT => 2, SECTION => 2 };
+my $rule_commands = { COMMENT => 0, FORMAT => 2, SECTION => 2, DEFAULT => 2 };
 
 use constant { MAX_MACRO_NEST_LEVEL => 5 };
 
@@ -1477,6 +1477,11 @@ sub process_action( $) {
 		next;
 	    }
 
+	    if ( $format == 2 && $target eq 'DEFAULTS' ) {
+		default_params( split_list $source, 'defaults' );
+		next;
+	    }	      
+
 	    process_rule1( $chainref,
 			   merge_levels( "$action:$level:$tag", $target ),
 			   '',